The Dardanelles, their story and their significance in the great war

THE DARDANELLES
AND THEIR STORY

BY THE AUTHOR OF
THE REAL KAISER"

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2008 with funding from

Microsoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/dardanellestheirOOreal

THE DARDANELLES AND THEIR
STORY

BY THE SAME AUTL OR.
Second Large Edition.

THE REAL KAISER.

The Times says : —
Certainly good reading . . . Shews a good
knowledge o{ German life and ways of
thought.

Times Literary Supplement : —
The Best Book on the Kaiser.

London : Andrew Melrose, Ltd.

THE

DARDANELLES

THEIR STORY AND THEIR

SIGNIFICANCE IN THE

GREAT WAR

By

The Author of " The Real Kaiser "

LONDON: ANDREW MELROSE, LTD
3 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C

1915

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I The Significance of the Dardanelles

II The Dardanelles

III The Romance of the Hellespont

IV Byzantium ....
V The New Rome

VI Turkey in Europe .

VII The Sick Man's Stronghold

VIII The Mastery of the Dardanelles

IX The German Plot in Turkey .

X Turkey Seals Her Doom .

XI The Balkans on the Fence

XII The Defences of the Dardanelles

5

27
36
45
52
60
69

79
88

98

106

CONTENTS

CHAP.

XIII The Attack from the Sea

XIV The Efficiency of the Fleet .
XV The Landing of the Army

XVI Astride Gallipoli

XVII By Land and Sea

XVIII The Future of the Dardanelles

PAGE

124
133
143
151
160

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Warships and Transports at the Entrance to the

Dardanelles .... Frontispiece

Map showing Entrance to the Dardanelles, with

Positions of Forts ...... 22

Trenches and Guns at Seddul Bahr ... 69

The Fortress of Seddul Bahr, Exterior View . 89

Cape Helles Fort ....... 107

Map of the Dardanelles, showing Positions of Forts

on European and Asiatic Sides . . . ." 118

A Dismantled Fort 133

After the Bombardment 147

CHAPTER I
The Significance of the Dardanelles

WHEN Turkey, egged on by Germany, blun-
dered into war with the Powers of the
Triple Entente, it was obvious that she was
staking her continued existence as a nation on
the result. It was equally certain that she
presented the best object of attack among the
hostile nations ranged against the Allied
Powers. There was no surprise, therefore, when
the official announcement was made in Feb-
ruary that the forts of the Dardanelles had been
attacked and bombarded by the fleets of the
Allies, with the object of forcing a passage
through the Straits and reducing Constanti-
nople.

Such an attack was possible only because of
the remarkable naval strength of Great Britain.
To sweep the Seven Seas clear of hostile ships,
to maintain a blockade of the enemies' war

io THE DARDANELLES

fleets, and still to have a powerful fleet for so
important an offensive operation was the ulti-
mate triumph of the continuous naval policy
of the country. At the time of writing, the
operations appear to be approaching a success-
ful issue as quickly as could reasonably be
expected ; though the progress made has not
been achieved without the sacrifice of a number
of warships and of many valuable lives.

The loss of life and material involved in this
attempt upon the Dardanelles could only be
justified by bringing it to a successful issue.
When that has been done the results attained
will far more than compensate the nation for
the price it has paid, grievous though it has been.

The first result will be the restoration of com-
munications between Russia and her Western
allies. The declaration of war by Turkey al-
most coincided with the freezing over of the
Russian port at Archangel, and so deprived our
Eastern ally of any means of communication
by sea with the friendly world outside. The
entrance to the Baltic was blocked by the Ger-
man fleet, the Dardanelles were closed by the

AND THEIR STORY u

Turks, and Archangel was choked by its annual
coat of ice.

In the early spring of 191 5 the Russian army
sustained severe reverses in Galicia and the
passes of the Carpathians. The official explana-
tion of these reverses was a simple one ; the
Russians were overmatched in heavy guns, the
deciding factor in the war of Europe. But
big guns and huge stores of ammunition, indeed,
military equipment of all kinds, were ready for
them in the West, only waiting until a means
could be devised of carrying it to Russia.

In other words, by inducing Turkey to make
war and close the Dardanelles, Germany put
her dangerous foe in the East to a heavy disad-
vantage, which must continue until the Dar-
danelles are opened again. That, in itself, is
a sufficient reason for the operations made by
the Allies to force the passage of the Straits.

The autumn of 1914 saw a heavy wheat har-
vest garnered on the shores of the Black Sea.
It was a food supply of infinite value to the
allied forces, at a time when the price of wheat
was mounting by leaps and bounds over all the

12 THE DARDANELLES

world. But so long as the Dardanelles are
closed to our merchant ships, the Russian wheat
must lie useless in the granaries. And so, if
only to restore trading communication between
East and West, the attempt upon the Darda-
nelles had to be made.

It is almost equally important to destroy
the present means of communication between
Germany and Turkey. These means are main-
tained through some of the neutral Balkan
States, and more particularly through Rumania
and Bulgaria. These communications can only
be stopped by some event which will force the
Balkan States to declare themselves. Their
reasons for remaining quiescent in a struggle
which involves their interest most deeply will
be enumerated elsewhere. But the Balkan
States, one and all, are supremely concerned
in the ultimate mastery of Constantinople.
The reasons which caused its founder to select
the city as the new capital of the Roman
Empire apply with equal force to-day. Apart
from its naval importance, as the key to the
Straits, Constantinople occupies a position of

AND THEIR STORY 13

the highest strategical significance, from the
military point of view alone. Its possession
would mean to any of the existing nations of
South-east Europe a nucleus spot for the creation
of an Empire that might well vie in might and
influence with the great Empires that have
already had their seat there.

When Constantinople passes into the hands
of the Allies the momentous choice can no
longer be deferred by the Balkan States. It
will indeed be strange if, when the magnitude
of their interests has been considered by them,
they cannot set aside the differences that have
paralyzed them through the first months of
the war. In the great settlement that is before
Europe the question of paramount importance
to them is the disposal of Constantinople. Only
one way exists for any of them to claim a voice
in the settlement of that question. Which of
them will refuse to take that way when Con-
stantinople shall have fallen into the hands of
the Allied Powers ?

It would seem, therefore, that the forcing
of the Dardanelles will drive between Germany

14 THE DARDANELLES

and what is left of Turkey a wedge of far greater
extent than is represented by the mere strip
of territory that will fall into the possession
of the Allies. The Turks will be cut off from
their supplies of weapons, ammunition, and
skilled advisers. There will be a rapid end
of them as a fighting possibility, and a deadly
menace to the whole of our Eastern Empire
will be removed.

For the plot to rouse the fanaticism of the
300,000,000 Mohammedans of the world into
a religious war against Great Britain has still
to be considered. The wise precautions taken
in Egypt by our government, and the magni-
ficent loyalty of the Mohammedans of our Indian
Empire, checked that plot at its very inception.
But the idea itself is an insidious poison, that
has been diligently scattered by German emis-
saries in all the dark and uncivilized places of
the earth. It has been sedulously fostered by
such lies as Germany alone knows how to dis-
seminate. It would be impossible to exag-
gerate the danger it still holds for civiliza-
tion.

AND THEIR STORY 15

Savage and half savage tribes in Africa and
the East are watching the issue with true homi-
cidal interest. All their latent savagery is
stirred by the return of an era of unchecked
violence and bloodshed. The Kaiser, who has
already figured in their eyes as the protector
of Mohammedanism, and has even been re-
presented to them as a renegade Christian, has
led his armies into the lands of the Christian.
Great slaughter has been made, and is con-
fined to lands outside the German sway.

The prestige of Great Britain, in which they
have an inherited belief, the more implicit be-
cause it has never before been challenged, is
now at stake. It suffices still to hold them in
check, though every baser instinct in them is
stirred by the daily record of carnage and
savagery. All heathendom waits expectant for
the next turn of fortune.

The great Sultan has declared a holy war.
It is sedulously reported that the English are
determined to crush the Mohammedan faith ;
that, as far as they can, they will prevent pil-
grimages to Mecca ; that the Ameer of Afghan-

16 THE DARDANELLES

istan has taken up arms for the faith. All Islam
looks on, rapt and intent.

In these circumstances an attack is launched
at the very heart of Turkey. The Holy War
becomes for the Sultan a war of self-preser-
vation. The seat of the Turkish Empire is
threatened ; it seems about to pass away from
his possession into the hands of the all-con-
quering English. The heathen must still wait
for the event, sullen and watchful.

And this mighty issue, the prestige of the
British flag in all the dark places of the world,
is being decided in the Straits of the Dardanelles.
While Constantinople stands, the few white
men who are holding hundreds of thousands
of coloured men in check, not in one place but
in many, live in a deadly peril. Had Constan-
tinople never been attacked, they might well
have been carried away ere now in a flood of
barbaric licence. When Constantinople falls,
the floodgates will be securely fastened again,
and the British prestige will stand higher than
ever, both in Africa and in the dangerous Far
East.

AND THEIR STORY 17

In view of these considerations, it is easily
possible to regard the attempt on the Darda-
nelles as the main point of the Allies' offensive.
The mighty efforts put forward by the Germans
since the landing of troops on either side of
the Straits may well have resulted from a recog-
nition on their part of the gravity of the issue
with Turkey. Whatever blows they could de-
liver had to be delivered before the fall of Con-
stantinople should knit their enemies yet closer
together, strengthening them on all sides and
at once.

The Allies, on their part, display that cohe-
rence of plan which has marked their conduct
of the war since its very beginning. They are
still as economical of human life as their enemies
are lavish. In confident unison they are endur-
ing all, until the determining factor in the
struggle has been revealed. May not that factor
be declared when the Christian God is once
more worshipped under the dome of St. Sophia ?

CHAPTER II
The Dardanelles

IT is only according to the nature of things
that the lines which bound a continent
cannot be artificial. Nature has decreed that a
continent should be something self-contained, and
no mere human convention could possibly estab-
lish the demarcations of so great a thing. Vast
natural barriers separate one continent from
another ; wide expanses of ocean, or lofty and
impassable ranges of mountains. Continents
may have such slender connections as the isth-
muses of Suez and Panama, but the very nar-
rowness of these marks the line of division as
surely as the width of a whole ocean interven-
ing.

So we find that the line which separates the
continent of Europe from that of Asia is in no
way artificial ; it is a line established from the
beginning of things by Nature herself. The

THE DARDANELLES 19

lofty bristling mass of mountains called the
Urals, the wide gulf of the Black Sea, the stern
summits of the Caucasus range ; these are the
barriers which have separated one continent
from the other as surely as the Atlantic Ocean
has divided America from Africa.

Only in one place do the confines of Asia ap-
proach very nearly to the edge of Europe ; and
that is where the river-fed waters of the Black
Sea find an outlet into the bosom of the Mediter-
ranean. Here are two narrow waterlanes, the
Straits of the Dardanelles and the Straits of
the Bosphorus, bulbing out where they meet
into a fairly broad sheet of water, the Sea of
Marmora. From time immemorial the easiest
way between the two continents has been across
this narrow water passage, and from the earliest
times the control of this passage has been a
subject of dispute and a possession of great value.

It is not surprising to find, therefore, that
when the nations of the earth take up arms to
contend in a great world-war, one of the vital
struggles should centre upon the possession of
this waterway ; and that the newest nations of

20 THE DARDANELLES

civilization should find their baptism of blood
on the soil where, thousands of years ago, Greeks
tussled with barbarians for the cause of Light.
As these words are written the last great struggle
for the right of passage from East to West re-
mains undecided, but the inner significance of
the conflict is obvious enough.

It is the fourth phase of the greatest war the
world has ever known ; or is ever likely to know.
The first phase, and probably the decisive one,
was the instant assertion by Great Britain of
the truth of all the theories put forward by strate-
gical writers as to the overwhelming importance
of sea power. Before the war was a week old,
the might of the British fleet had been proved,
the commerce of the hostile nations had been
driven from the seven seas, and the Allies were
enjoying the benefits derived from the control
of the ocean.

The second phase was the rush of the massed
hordes of the German army to occupy the cities
and plains of Western Europe. By what now
seems a very miracle, they were turned back at
the gates of Paris, and as a result the deadlock

AND THEIR STORY 21

of trench warfare in the West was established.

The third phase, the attempt of the Russians
to sweep into Austria while threatening the
plains of East Prussia with their surplus legions,
might be described as even less successful were
it not established that the conditions of the
conflict have not permitted the Russian hosts
to put forth their full strength, as the Germans
put forth theirs in the West.

It is the object of this book to show that the
policy which dictated an attack on the Dar-
danelles, with the ultimate object of capturing
Constantinople and driving a wedge between
Turkey in Europe and Turkey in Asia, is a policy
dictated by the necessity of bringing an early
end to the war, which is exhausting the resources
of Europe at such breakneck speed. In en-
deavouring to explain the true significance of
this great adventure a variety of considerations
will be touched upon, and some historical lati-
tude, it is hoped, will be allowed to the writer.
But some description of the Dardanelles is due
in the first place.

The passage of the Dardanelles is 45 miles

22 THE DARDANELLES

long from its mouth at the Mediterranean to
the Sea of Marmora. Its greatest width is five
miles, and its least width is less than a mile.
The entrance from the Mediterranean is two
miles wide, and from this point the Asiatic shore
immediately curves inland, while the land on
the European side runs straight and unbroken.
Here is a line of barren cliffs and rock, while
on the Asiatic side are sloping gardens and rich
vineyards.

The mouth is protected on the Asiatic shore
by the fort of Kum Kale, erected on the point
known as Jeni Schehr. On this point Hercules
is said to have landed with the Argonauts, and
Agamemnon with his Greek hosts for the siege
of Troy. Imitating these legendary heroes, Alex-
ander the Great made his first landing in Asia
on the same spot.

Once within the channel, the traveller passes
a coastline rich with classical memories. Near
the mouth of the Scamander river may be seen
the tombs of Achilles, Patroclus and Festus ;
while in the distance the heap of stones that
marks the site of ancient Troy can still be dis-

COPYRIGHT "GEOGRAPHIA" LTP 55 FLEET STREET LONDON E.C

AND THEIR STORY 23

cerned. Above all towers the height of Mount
Ida, at some seasons of the year crowned with
snow. Near the mouth of the river is the beach
where the Greeks who besieged Troy dragged
up their ships, and the plain beyond is the scene
of the exploits of the heroes of Homer.

Thirteen miles from the entrance is the town
of Dardanelles, and here the passage narrows
to its minimum width. At the point of the Asiatic
side where the Narrows actually begin is situated
Chanak, and the navigation here is most danger-
ous by reason of the current and the shallows
off the point. For this reason ships making
the passage are forced to hug the European
shore, an important point in the defence of the
Straits, as will presently be shown.

The current sets persistently down the Straits,
and is due to the amount of water emptied into
the Black Sea by the many large rivers, such as
the Danube, which discharge into that sheet
of water. There are baffling counter-currents
in places near the shore, but in mid-water the
direction of the current is constant towards the
Mediterranean. Its force is set down as from

24 THE DARDANELLES

three to four miles an hour, but many circum-
stances tend to make it vary. It may be laid
down as a general rule that the direction of the
wind has an important influence on the current.
When the North Wind backs the current up,
it flows with an additional swiftness, while the
South Wind affects its force very noticeably.
It is worth noting that the season of the North
Wind is the spring and summer, while the South
Wind blows in the autumn and winter.

Cape Helles is the point that marks the Euro-
pean coast at the entrance to the Straits. The
cliffs are unbroken to Kara-onasou, the Aegos-
Potamos of the ancients and scene of the great
naval battle in which the power of Athens was
wrecked.

Another rampart of cliffs lines the shore to the
very point where the opposing coasts approach
closest to one another, the points called Sestos
and Abydos by the ancients. From this point
— 12 miles from the entrance — it is 17 miles
to Gallipoli, the most considerable town on
the European shore until Constantinople it-
self is reached. Halfway between the Narrows

AND THEIR STORY 25

and this town the channel bends abruptly
to the south, and on the Asiatic shore is the
fort and village of Nagara. This fort is of
the utmost importance in the defence of the
passage, for it enfilades the difficult way through
the Narrows.

The general impression made upon the tra-
veller who passes through the Dardanelles is
rather that of a wide river than an arm of the
sea. To this impression the many windings
of the channel contribute, as well as its compara-
tive narrowness. The illusion is heightened by
the heavily wooded nature of the shore on both
sides, especially on the European shore.

The European shore of the Dardanelles is
really the narrow strip of land called the Galli-
poli Peninsula, which juts out between the Dar-
danelles and the Gulf of; Saros. This peninsula
consists of very rough country, high rocky hills
covered with dense thickets. It dominates the
lower lying and more gently sloping Asiatic
coast, being higher and better suited forjpur-
poses of defence. On its narrowest point, the
neck of land which connects the peninsula with

26 THE DARDANELLES

the mainland, is situated the town of Bulair,
which plays an important part in the defence
of the peninsula.

At its entrance to the Sea of Marmora the
passage of the Dardanelles is at its widest and
comparatively easy of navigation.

CHAPTER III
The Romance of the Hellespont

EVERY nation has its Eldorado, a treasure-
house where untold wealth waits the bold
adventurer. The path to the Eldorado of the
ancient Greeks lay through the Dardanelles,
which bore a name inextricably associated
with Eldorado. It was called the Hellespont
because, according to the legend, it received
the fallen Helle from the original ram with the
Golden Fleece.

Helle and Phryxus were the children of Atha-
mas and Nephele, whom Athamas decided
to sacrifice to Zeus. Nephele rescued them
from that fate, and they rode away from Europe
to Asia on the back of the ram with the golden
fleece. In mid-voyage Helle fell into the sea,
and was drowned ; and the crossing bore her
name ever afterwards. But Phryxus came safe
to land, and, as a propitiation, sacrificed the

27

28 THE DARDANELLES

ram to Zeus, giving the Golden Fleece to iEetes,
king of Colchis, who nailed it to a tree in the
Grove of Ares. To recover the Golden Fleece
Argos, the son of Phryxus, built a great ship,
called after him Argo, and, headed by Jason,
an expedition of legendary heroes set out on
the first great adventure of which the world
holds record. Hercules, Orpheus, Castor, Pol-
lux, Theseus and Nestor were among the Argon-
auts, whose wonderful voyage has been sung
from time immemorial.

The story has excited the ingenuity of modern
mythologists, who explain that the Golden Fleece
was the sun, and Nephele the cloud which
yields the fertilizing rain. But to the Greeks
the tale was a very real one, and had its influence
on their lives and characters. Its bearing on
the colonization of both shores of the Helles-
pont, and of the lands bordering the Euxine,
was no inconsiderable one. The first sea voyage
ever made had its influence upon a people who
afterwards made such voyages without number,
and spread their colonies over all the lands indi-
cated in the early fable.

AND THEIR STORY 29

Among the colonies planted in the Hellespont
were one at Abydos, in Asia, and another at
Sestos, in Europe, where Europe approaches
closest to Asia without actually touching. To
this narrow crossing — it is not quite a mile
wide — both legend and history have given a
peculiar interest. The names of Hero and Lean-
der at once leap to the mind. Leander was a
brave and beautiful youth of Abydos, who had
fallen in love with Hero, the priestess of Aphro-
dite in Sestos. Every night he swam across the
Hellespont to visit her, and before daybreak
swam back again. Then came a dark and stormy
night when the sea overcame him, and threw
him dead on the shore at Hero's feet. And
she, rinding life held no more sweetness for her,
plunged into the Hellespont and perished too.

The legendary feat of Leander was after-
wards accomplished by Lord Byron, who found
it no mean undertaking. Owing to the rapidity
of the current he had to cover more than four
miles before he reached the shore, an experience
that only a very strong swimmer might brave.

On the shores of the Hellespont, too, Dar-

3o THE DARDANELLES

danus founded the City of Troy. It was built
on a fertile plain, watered by the rivers of the
Simois and Scamander ; a plain where the Tro-
jans acquired great wealth as breeders of swift
horses. This city was attacked by a confedera-
tion of all the Grecian tribes, under the leadership
of Agamemnon, king of Argos. They entered
the Hellespont with a fleet of 1,200 vessels, each
with a complement of about 100 men. To-day
the trawlers of Hull are dredging for mines in
the waters threshed by the oars of these legen-
dary heroes, and the air that rang with the shouts
of Hector and Achilles is racked with the shock
of modern high explosives.

Herodotus, in his story of the Persian wars
with Greece, traces the animosity between the
nations of Europe and Asia to these legendary
events. The provocation given by Jason, who stole
from the King of Colchis his daughter Medea, is
held to have been balanced by the theft of Helen.

" The Persians," he writes, " appear to be of
opinion that they who offer violence to women
must be insensible to the impressions of justice,
but such provocations are as much beneath

AND THEIR STORY 31

revenge as the women themselves are unde-
serving of regard : it being obvious that all
females thus circumstanced must have been more
or less accessory to the fact. They asserted
also, that although women had been forcibly
carried away from Asia, they had never resented
the affront. The Greeks, on the contrary, to
avenge the rape of a Lacedaemonian woman,
had assembled a mighty fleet, entered Asia in
a hostile manner, and had totally overthrown
the Empire of Priam. Since which event they
had always considered the Greeks as the public
enemies of their nation."

Such was the fanciful origin which the old
historian devised for a vital struggle which
arose, as all such struggles do, from the expand-
ing power of an ambitious nation, headed by a
reckless ruler. The first Persian expedition
against Greece was undertaken by Darius to
occupy his victorious army, which had become
troublesome in idleness. He crossed a bridge of
boats built across the Bosphorus by the Samian
Mandrocles, and entered Europe on the expedi-
tion which ended in the battle of Marathon.

32 THE DARDANELLES

Then Darius prepared a great expedition to
launch against Greece, but died while it was still
in the making. He bequeathed his throne and
his plans to Xerxes, the king who bridged the
Hellespont. The debate on the building of the
bridge, as recorded by Herodotus, has its signi-
ficance at the present time. In the presence
of Xerxes, Artabanus, son of Hystaspes, and uncle
to Xerxes, ventured to oppose the scheme in
the following words :—

" You say that, throwing a bridge over the
Hellespont, you will lead your forces through
Europe into Greece ; but it may possibly
happen, that either on land or sea, or perhaps
by both, you may sustain a defeat, for'our enemies
are reported to be valiant. If, preparing their
fleet, they shall be victorious by sea, and after-
wards sailing to the Hellespont, shall destroy
your bridge, we may dread all that is bad."

But Xerxes went on with his expedition,
spending four years in gathering it together.
Then he threw his first bridge across the Helles-
pont, from Abydos to Sestos. The bridge was
no sooner completed than a great tempest arose

AND THEIR STORY . 33

and swept it away, to the great wrath of Xerxes.
He ordered fetters to be thrown into the water,
and three hundred lashes to be inflicted on the
waves, the men who wielded the lash saying :
' Thou ungracious water, thy master condemns
thee to this punishment for having injured him
without provocation. Xerxes the king will pass
over thee, whether thou consentest or not ; just
is it that no man honours thee with sacrifice,
for thou art insidious, and of an ungrateful
flavour."

Those who designed the faulty bridge he had
beheaded. Then a new bridge was built ; or
rather, two bridges. The bridge nearer the
Black Sea contained 360 vessels broadside to
the stream ; that nearer to the Mediterranean
313 head on to the current. All were secured
stem and stern with stout anchors, and three
openings were left that vessels might pass up and
down. Stout cables were then passed over the
boats from shore to shore, and across these were
bound rafters of wood. More planks were laid
on these, and on the top of them earth. The
whole was finished with a fence on either side,

c

34 THE DARDANELLES

so that the beasts of burden might not take
fright by looking upon the sea.

At Abydos a throne of marble had been built,
and seated on this, Xerxes surveyed the bridged
Hellespont, his mighty fleet and huge array of
men. Seven days and seven nights the march
of the army across the Hellespont continued ;
the last man to cross the bridge was Xerxes
himself.

The gloomy predictions of Artabanus after-
wards came true ; he was defeated both by land
and sea, and hurled back to the Hellespont
in a disastrous retreat. But there was no need
for the victorious Greeks to trouble about de-
stroying the bridge that had been built with so
much labour and ingenuity. A storm had broken
it into nothingness long before, and the remains
of his gigantic army had to be transported back
to Asia in little boats.

One more famous crossing of the Hellespont
changed the whole face of history. In the year
334 b.c. Alexander of Macedon arrived at Sestos
with an army for the invasion of Asia. It con-
sisted of the famous Macedonian phalanx of

AND THEIR STORY 35

12,000 men, 18,000 other foot soldiers, and 4,500
horse. It was equal in number, probably, to
the force Australia and New Zealand sent
across the ocean to assist in forcing the passage
of the Dardanelles. Arrived at Sestos, Alexander
sacrificed at the tomb of Protesilaos, because he
was the first of the Greeks with Agamemnon
to set foot on Asia.

For the passage of the army 160 triremes and
many vessels of burden had been prepared, and
the crossing was safely made. In mid-channel
Alexander offered a bull to Neptune and poured
a libation into the sea from a golden cup. He
stepped ashore fully armed and set up altars to
Jupiter, Pallas, and Hercules. Then he made
his way to Troy, and took down from the temple
of Pallas Ithaca a suit of consecrated armour,
said to have been there even since the Trojan
war. This armour was carried before him in his
expedition, wherever he went, In this way he
began the most amazing expedition ever launched
in the history of the world, that ended in the
conquest of India and the undignified death of
the Conqueror himself.

CHAPTER IV
Byzantium

1IKE all great colonizing races, the Greeks
-> were an audaciously adventurous people.
To this characteristic may be attributed the
fascination which the Dardanelles and the un-
known lands beyond always held for them. It
must have been difficult for them to row their
heavy ships against the strong currents of the
Narrows, and of the Bosphorus beyond. But
their legends held that somewhere through these
mystic Straits lay Eldorado, the land of the
Golden Fleece. That was only one of many
desirable countries to be reached by striving
against the strong stream of the Hellespont, and
expeditions were constantly being launched in
search of these delectable regions.

Naturally most of these expeditions finished
up in the Black Sea. The earliest comers got a
rough reception there, and in early times the

36

THE DARDANELLES 37

Greeks knew the sea as Axeinos — the Inhos-
pitable. Later, however, the first verdict was
completely reversed, and the title Euxeinos, or
hospitable, was given to the sea, and the lands
bordering upon it. Many a colony was planted
on its shores ; it is estimated that from Miletus
alone ninety colonies were founded on the Black
Sea. Among them were Istrus, at the mouth
of the Danube ; Tyras, at the mouth of the
Dneister ; Theodosia ; and even Tanais, as far
north as the mouth of the Don.

These turned out flourishing settlements
enough, producing an abundance of wheat, fish,
and other raw products. But the Greeks did
not leave their own fertile and pleasant land in
search of sites where rough life and an abundance
of primitive food were the reward of the adven-
turer. None of the Black Sea settlements ever
throve and became important, though Greece
for centuries afterwards drew its stores of corn
and salt fish from this source.

The fact was that the spirit of adventure had
drawn the early expeditions past the spot best
suited for a great Greek colony. The settlements

38 THE DARDANELLES

made on the shores of the Hellespont and the
Sea of Marmora were comparatively few. The
Lesbians, it is true, had planted a colony at
Sestos, and the Milesians had settled at Abydos,
because between these two places lay the shortest
route from Asia to Europe ; and the trading
opportunities there were naturally considerable.
And the Megarians had settled at Chalcedon, on
the Asiatic shore of the Sea of Marmora, near
the mouth of the Bosphorus.

The Greeks had a keen eye for a point of van-
tage, and it is a matter for surprise that these
Megarians missed the much finer site on the
opposite shore. Nearly twenty }^ears later, in
the year 666 B.C., it was selected by an expedi-
tion from the same city, who had consulted the
Delphic oracle when considering the important
matter of a new sphere of activities. The answer
of the oracle was characteristically vague. They
were told to settle opposite the city of the blind.
They immediately dropped anchor opposite their
fellow-citizens at Chalcedon, a caustic com-
mentary on the choice these had made of a
colony.

AND THEIR STORY 39

Their chosen site was an ideal one for a great
trading city. In the words of Gibbon, all Europe
was behind it and all Asia before it. A triangle
of sloping ground was selected, where the Sea of
Marmora joins with the Golden Horn. This
latter is an inlet of the sea, nearly two miles
wide and over eight miles long, with an abundant
depth of water to the very edge of the shore.
Into this magnificent natural harbour the river
Lycus pours its waters, scouring out the harbour
at every change of the tide.

The climate is healthy and the soil is fertile.
The position is easily defended, for two sides of
the triangle are bordered by the sea, and the
third does not prevent any great length to be
defended. The natural slope of the land is also
against any invader seeking to attack the site.
It opens on two great seas, the Mediterranean
and the Black Sea. When attacked from either
of these sides it is possible to draw supplies from
the other.

At the time of the foundation of Byzantium,
more than half the commerce of the known
globe passed through the Straits ; in later years

40 THE DARDANELLES

the proportion became even higher. The trading
advantages of such a spot were obvious, especially
in a time when mariners made no long journeys,
but were glad to call at every port along their
route.

The two main industries of the city built on
this spot were commerce and fishing. Byzantium
commanded the whole trade of the Black Sea,
for it was the custom of every ship passing through
the Straits, in either direction, to put in there.
Even in very early days the Black Sea commerce
comprised the bulk of the trade between Europe
and Asia, the natural bridge for traffic being
across the Straits. The importance attached
by the Byzantines to their fishing profits is
marked by their early coins, which bear the ox —
a sign of the Bosphorus, or ox-ford — and a
tunny-fish as well.

Byzantium soon became a wealthy and a
luxurious city. Among their fellow-Greeks, its
citizens had a reputation for sloth and gour-
mandizing, though judged in the light of history
they appear to have been brave and active enough.
They played a leading part in the Greek combina-

AND THEIR STORY 41

tion against Persia, and were among the first
to place their fleet at the disposal of the Federa-
tion. They were so near Persia that they were
bound to suffer in the hostilities, and for thirty
years the city had to submit to the Persian
yoke.

Soon after the Persians were turned out, the
city was ruled by a tyrant, Histiaeus, who had
the bright idea of charging dues on all the ship-
ping that passed through the Straits. It says
much for the position of the city, from the
strategical side, that he was enabled to enforce
this demand. It ceased, however, when he was
turned out.

None of the subsequent vicissitudes of the
city interfered with its growing prosperity.
When Athens was at the summit of her power
the Athenians twice captured Byzantium, exact-
ing tribute the city was well able to pay. Alexan-
der the Great took it, and made it part of his
kingdom of Macedon. It recovered its indepen-
dence when the might of Macedon had waned,
and allied itself to the coming greatness of Rome,
while retaining its freedom and independence.

42 THE DARDANELLES

Later the importance of its position involved
it in the ever recurring struggles for the Roman
throne. In one of these struggles it was utterly
destroyed by the Emperor Severus, at the end
of the second century a.d. A little more than a
hundred years later it was again entered by a
conqueror, its fall settling the struggle between
the Emperors Licinius and Constantine. To the
Emperor Constantine, the capture of Byzantium
meant something more than the possession of a
rich and powerful city. He saw a good deal
further than that.

Constantine was only a Roman in the widest
sense of the word. He was provincially born ;
indeed his birthplace was that remote city of
Nisch, where the Serbians of to-day have estab-
lished their capital, having been driven by the
Austrian guns from the more convenient city of
Belgrade. He had seen service in many of the
outlying parts of the Empire ; his crown had
been placed on his head at our own city of York.
His title to be Emperor was proved by his recog-
nition of two things. The first was the growing
danger which threatened the vast and loosely

AND THEIR STORY 43

knit Roman Empire from the pressure of bar-
barian hordes from the East ; the second was
the unsuitable position of Rome as capital of such
an Empire, when constant military measures had
to be taken against the invaders.

Before the capture of Byzantium he had been
credited with the desire to set up a new capital
of the Roman Empire. Rumour had assigned
many different places, among them Sofia, now
capital of Bulgaria, and Ilium, the site of ancient
Troy. But what Constantine required was a
seaport, where fleets and armies could be assem-
bled together ; a trading centre, so that the
new capital should not lack a large and prosper-
ous civilian population.

It was further essential that the new capital
should be much farther East than Rome, since
the danger threatened from the East and the
North-east. It was true that from Rome he
could defend Italy ; and could defend it very
effectually, with the aid of the mountain ram-
parts which had to be crossed by the probable
invaders. But he wished to defend the whole
Empire, and needed a city from which he could

44 THE DARDANELLES

issue and cut off small bands of invaders or face
large ones. He found exactly what he wanted
at Byzantium ; and history has shown the wisdom
of his choice.

CHAPTER V
The New Rome

THE foundation of a new city was a solemn
business to the Romans, and the pomp
with which Constantine initiated the ceremony
of marking out the city was intended to presage
its future importance. Far beyond the bounds
of Byzantium he traced its future limits, and
only stopped when a circuit of twelve miles
had been compassed. Then he sought a place
for the city centre, and selected it where his
camp had been placed, on the crest of the second
of the seven hills on which the New Rome arose.

Here he set up the golden Milion, a point
from which all distances in the Eastern Empire
were in future measured. It was the centre
of the new city market place, and the spot was
marked by the erection of a small building with
seven pillars.

South-east of this point he chose the site for

45

46 THE DARDANELLES

the palace, clearing a large area facing the Sea
of Marmora. He had a wall built for a distance
of about a mile, running parallel to the shore
from the lighthouse which marks the junction
of the Bosphorus and Sea of Marmora. On
this area was built the palace ; and the same
site was afterwards used by the Moslem con-
querors of the city.

North-west of the palace he set up the Augus-
taeum, a great forum 1,000 feet in length and
300 in breadth. Between this and the palace
itself he built the great baths of the New Rome,
and north of the baths was the Senate House.
Still farther west was the Hippodrome, and to
the north of that the cathedral of St. Sophia,
the predecessor of the Christian building that
was to become a Moslem mosque. This group
of buildings formed the centre of the New Rome.

Constantine took care to offer every induce-
ment to the proper sort of citizens to settle in the
New Rome. Many Roman senators and rising
men received grants of land and honours for
transferring their fortunes to the newly-built
city. It had special attractions for two valuable

AND THEIR STORY 47

classes of the community. No inducements were
needed to cause merchants and sailors to flock
there.

In one matter only did the founder of the
city fail. He had wished to impose upon it
the name he had given it : the New Rome.
But from its early days it received the name
it still bears, the city of Constantine.

For a thousand years yet it was to be the
rampart of Christianity against barbarianism.
For so long it was to remain to the forces of
heathendom simply Miklagrad : the great city.
Its walls and its strong position were to discount
many an attack from the infidel hordes, whose
coming its founder so clearly foresaw.

With surprising rapidity the city grew, and
added suburbs to itself. Pera, Galata, and even
Scutari across the water on the Asiatic side,
were soon its integral parts. And its merchants
trafficked safely in the shelter of its walls, under
the protection of its guarded seas.

Meanwhile with Rome it was very different.
Constantine had seen the coming of the barbarian
hordes, and had known that from Rome the

48 THE DARDANELLES

Empire could never be saved. Seven years
after his death, a great struggle began between
the Huns and Goths, which was the beginning
of the collapse of the Western Empire. From
its foundation the new city attracted citizens
of every conceivable race. The dominant class
were Greeks of the purest birth, men of the
deepest culture and the finest artistic instincts.
They were able to preserve in this stronghold
all the seeds of learning and knowledge, while
the rest of Christendom was crumbling to destruc-
tion under barbarian hands.

In art, in architecture, and in learning they
founded schools of their own. Of their archi-
tecture there remains many a glorious specimen,
including that mosque of St. Sophia that was
for nearly a thousand years a Christian cathedral.
It was built by Justinian to the design of the
architect Anthemius of Tralles, and completed
in the year 532 a.d.

The solid prosperity of the city advanced
with each successive century. To its port came
all the wealth of central Europe, brought down
by the great river Danube and passing through

AND THEIR STORY 49

the Bosphorus to the great mart of the East.
Similarly the produce of the rich plains of Southern
Russia came, by means of the Volga and the
Don, to the harbour of Constantinople. It was
further the metropolis of the Aegean Sea and
even of Egypt.

As for the trade with the Far East, conducted
by means of caravans, there was no other route
into Europe except through the golden gates of
Constantinople. The rugs of Persia, the rich
cloths and spices of the Indies, the porcelains
and furs of China, all found their way into the
markets of Constantinople. It was just as
inevitable that the return trade from Europe
to the East should find its depot there ; it had to
be handled from the harbour of the Golden Horn.

The gradual falling away of the New Rome
from the ideals and customs of the Old Rome
may have been due to this mixture of races.
In any case the Greek aspirations did not coincide
with those of Rome, especially the Rome of
the later Empire. As a consequence many of
the institutions of Rome suffered considerable
modification at Constantinople.

D

50 THE DARDANELLES

Constantine, for instance, built a hippodrome
and circus, but not an amphitheatre for gladi-
atorial displays. In Constantinople the most
exciting sports in the hippodrome were the
horse and chariot races, for which the building
was designed. The killing of man by man or
by wild beasts never took place there. It was
not the intention of the founder that such spec-
tacles should be provided ; and the sentiment
of Eastern Christianity was strongly opposed
to them.

To the same sentiment may be ascribed the
very marked modification which the slave customs
of Rome suffered in Constantinople. Slaves
were certainty kept, but their lot was lightened
by many a possibility of freedom. The stigma
of serfdom did not exist ; a man might marry
a slave girl and free her without comment.
Finally there was no such thing as inherited
slavery.

This softening of ideals was accompanied by
a certain deterioration in the resisting qualities
whirl) involved the ultimate destruction of the
Eastern Empire. This destruction was long de-

AND THEIR STORY 51

layed by two circumstances. The first was the
method of selection of an Emperor. The throne
was always open to any one who could prove
that he was entitled to it. The proof was usually
by an appeal to arms, which resulted in favour
of the better soldier.

Thus the Eastern Empire fell at frequent
intervals into the hands of some skilful soldier
and statesman, who administered his office with
wisdom, and led his armies with bravery and
resource. In his task of defending the capital
the second circumstance, its almost impregnable
position, was of the highest importance. De-
fended by the sea on two sides, and on the third
side by a mighty wall, Constantinople stood
its ground for over a thousand years, practically
unscathed.

When its time came to fall, it fell before none
of the enemies in Europe who had threatened
it so long, but before a heathen race attacking
from its weakest side, the Asiatic borders.

CHAPTER VI
Turkey in Europe

CONSTANTINOPLE, from being the head-
quarters of the Christian faith, was now
destined to become the stronghold of heathen-
dom in Europe. Rome of the East could not
resist the military power of the Ottoman Turks,
and the old civilization fell before the fierce
attack of the barbarian.

The migration of the Ottoman westwards
was not a sudden rush so much as the gradual
expansion of a forceful and military race: From
the confines of Tartary they spread over the
greater part of Arabia, and what is now Asia
Minor. Just as their predecessors the Saracens
had taken first Damascus and then Jerusalem,
so one by one the important cities on the Asiatic
shore of the Dardanelles fell into the hands
of the Ottomans.

For the continuance of their military power

52

THE DARDANELLES 53

their Sultan Mahmud instituted a fighting force
which for the next 300 years was to hold the
armies of Europe in terror. Each year a thou-
sand young Christian boys were taken from
the conquered towns, and brought up to the
use of arms. They were forced to adopt the
Moslem faith, they were carefully reared and
trained, and grew up to be the most skilful and
daring soldiers of their times. Thus was formed
the legion of the Janissaries, the nucleus of an
army which struck fear into the hearts of all
who encountered them.

Being of a race separate from their employers,
these mercenaries were not troubled with con-
siderations of politics, or indeed with any matter
except the exercise of arms. They were sub-
ject to an iron discipline, their traditions imposed
on them uncomplaining endurance under all
circumstances ; but they had many privileges
and were amply rewarded for their work. These
legions of renegade Christians were turned by
the Ottomans against the first country of Chris-
tianity.

In the reign of the Sultan Orkhan a sort of

54 THE DARDANELLES

alliance existed between the Ottomans and the
Emperor Cantacazenus. The Emperor had given
his daughter to the Sultan in marriage, and an
understanding, not very creditable to the Chris-
tians, existed between them. The cause of
trouble was a difference between the Emperor
and the Genoese, who were allied to the Turks.

The result was that Suleyman Pasha crossed
the Dardanelles on a raft with eighty men, and
the Turks entered Europe for the first time.
They have never since been dislodged. Three
thousand Ottomans followed Suleyman, and the
Turks laid siege to Gallipoli, which fell in 1358.
A year later the Sultan Orkhan died, and his
successor Murad turned his serious attention to
European conquest. His armies penetrated as
far as the Danube ; but it was left for his suc-
cessor to deal the telling blow at Christianity.

Bayezid, the Sultan in question, encountered
a strong army drawn from all parts of the Roman
Empire, at Nicopolis ; and utterly routed them.
He was himself to be defeated and wrecked
by Tamerlane, that Timour the Tartar who
espoused the cause of the Christian against

AND THEIR STORY 55

the Turk. The battle of Angora was won by
Tamerlane because of the overwhelming super-
iority of his numbers, but it was, for the time, a
knockdown blow for the Turk.

Thus Bayezid, who had laid fierce siege to
Constantinople, was not to realize his dream
of capturing the city. That was deferred for
another half century, the walls falling before
Mohammed II in 1453. An important part in
the reduction of the city was played by artillery,
the first use of siege guns on a large scale
recorded in history. Later, it will be shown,
the Turks were quick to grasp the use they could
make of artillery in keeping the city they had
won by this means.

The Turkish entry was accompanied by such
scenes as marked the capture of an important
city in the Middle Ages. Many of the more
prominent citizens died painfully, but far more
were captured and cast into slavery. It is esti-
mated that no less than 60,000 of the inhabitants
of the city, for the most part women and chil-
dren, were enslaved by their conquerors. So
Constantinople fell into the hands of the iniidel.

56 THE DARDANELLES

The change was marked by the conversion
of the Cathedral of St. Sophia. The crosses
in the basilica were thrown down, the mural
hangings were torn away, and the beautiful
mosaics of the walls were thickly coated with
whitewash. Not half a century ago a French
architect was called in by the Sultan to repair
the great building, and he uncovered these
mosaics, finding them fresh and beautiful as on
the day the artists executed them. He covered
them with canvas to preserve them from
any damage, and the walls were once more
whitened, as are those of every mosque.

Thus the last days of the classic era passed
away, and modern history opened. Under the
influence of the Oriental conquerors, the very
classical Greek tongue became corrupted into
the dialect we know as modern Greek. The
last stronghold of culture became an oriental
city, and a Mohammedan city at that.

Mohammed at once made the city the capital
of Turkey. He wisely saw that to maintain
its former prosperity it must retain the old class
of merchant citizen who had thriven on its trade

AND THEIR STORY 57

for so many centuries. Many of the merchants
had fled before the siege of the city, or had es-
caped the horrors which followed its capture.
He set to work to appease these with a view
to recalling them to residence there. His first
step was an effective one ;— he let it be known
that he placed no barrier upon the practice of
the Christian religion. The Christian clergy were
treated with every show of consideration, and
a nominal patriarch was actually appointed.

The Greeks, the Genoans, the Venetians and
all the other trading classes flocked back to
Constantinople, and soon the normal course of
trading life was resumed there. Both Genoans
and Venetians had factories there, the Genoans
especially enjoying remarkable privileges. A
special quarter of the city was reserved for them,
and round it they had built a strong wall. Here
they lived under the government of their own
bailiff, a race apart from their fellow-citizens.

The Greeks proved themselves more pliable,
and suited themselves well to the ends of their
conquerors. They were sailors and fishermen,
as well as merchants and craftsmen ; and the

58 THE DARDANELLES

growth and power of the Turkish fleet were due
to the supply of capable Greek sailors upon whom
they could draw.

The presence of the infidel in the first city
of Christendom was accepted by the Christian
nations with a philosophy which is easy of
explanation. The Turk had valuable trading
privileges to dispose of ; he could prevent the
ships of any nation from passing through the
Dardanelles. The value of these privileges was
so highly appreciated that the most Christian
nations competed with one another for them
at the Court of the Sultan himself.

Thus in 1578 we find one William Harburn, or
Harebone, appearing at the Court of Amurath III
with a letter from Queen Elizabeth, asking
for his friendship and the right for the English
to trade through the Dardanelles. Harburn
remained at the Sultan's court, making good
progress in advancing the British interests, and
was succeeded by William Burton as ambassador.
The latter obtained the privileges that were
sought, though they were abrogated later.

It will be possible to show that by dispensing

AND THEIR STORY 59

these trading privileges wisely and with care,
the Turk made friends for himself among the
Powers of Europe, and guarded against a grow-
ing power in the East to whom the possession
of Constantinople was as essential for further
expansion as it was to the Ottoman power
itself. For this reason the right of passage
through the Dardanelles was a concession jealously
guarded, and granted only under exceptional
circumstances. It was one of the forces that
kept the Turk in his stronghold of Constanti-
nople.

N

CHAPTER VII
The Sick Man's Stronghold

EW Rome," writes Freeman, " is still
held by the barbarian invader. Set
free some day she must be ; but what will
be her fate ? Who then shall be her ruler ?
In the Eastern peninsula history and Nature
combine to make Constantinople the only head ;
no other seat of rule is possible ; but it is not
in the same way clear who is the natural ruler.

" Set her free from the stranger, and there
is no single nation waiting to receive her. Con-
stantinople can never be the mere head of a
province ; it must be the head of an Empire.
But it does not follow that it can now be the
seat of an universal Empire."

These words, written more than a generation
ago, illustrate a problem that is more than a
century old. In his message to the Sultan of
Turkey at the outbreak of the war with Ger-

60

THE DARDANELLES 61

many, King George reminded him of " the
friendship of more than a century " that has
existed between Great Britain and Turkey. It
was a friendship that saved the Ottoman Empire
from extinction on more than one occasion,
and can be traced to the European upheaval
that followed the Napoleonic war.

In that upheaval the power of Turkey, which
had long been waning, began to crumble away.
In the same era Russia, long regarded as a
remote and oriental nation, began to rank
among the European powers. The shrewdness
of the blow Russia had dealt at France was
recognized by all the Western nations, but
nowhere more forcibly than in Great Britain.
Russia had in the previous generation estab-
lished her title to all the rich cornlands bordering
on the Black Sea, and her advance south and
west was viewed with apprehension and dismay.

More especially, as has already been shown,
was value set upon the privilege of trading
through the Straits of the Dardanelles. Turkey
had shown, while still a considerable power,
how jealously that privilege could be guarded,

62 THE DARDANELLES

and how good a bargain could be struck by the
judicious dispensation of it.

Britain was then, as now, the first naval
power in the world. It was more to her interest
than that of any other nation that all sea
passages should be kept open, and that no other
strong power should be in a position to close
any valuable waterway upon her commerce or
her warships. For such a country it was advan-
tageous that the control of so valuable a passage
should be in the hands of a weak nation rather
than in those of a strong one. The danger of
misuse would be considerably less, the possi-
bility of preventing misuse would be considerably
greater.

The friendship between Great Britain and
Turkey was founded, therefore, more upon
material than sentimental ground. Then, as now,
there was nothing very lovable about the Turk.
In the struggles of the subject nations of Europe
who have thrown off the Turkish fetters, British
sympathy has always been cast against the Turk.
His continued and wanton persecutions of Chris-
tians have offended the religious spirit of the

AND THEIR STORY 63

country. The corruption that has always char-
acterized his financial methods has been a grave
menace to the capitalists who advanced money
upon the Turkish National security, only to find
the consideration by no means a valuable one.

Nor has Turkey been a staunch and loyal
friend. The atmosphere of intrigue that always
pervades the court of an absolute monarch
existed in a marked degree in the Palace of the
Sultan. It was complicated by the Turkish
custom of polygamy, for the politics of Turkey
were not infrequently the politics of the harem.
A variety of other circumstances combined to
render the position of British Ambassador at
Constantinople one of the most difficult and
important in the diplomatic service.

These were matters of but trifling importance
compared with the growing power and ambition
of Russia.

The power of Turkey in Europe was broken
and the Empire dismembered by a series of
wars with Russia, extending, with intervals,
over a century and a half. In every war Russia
gained territory that Turkey lost, and the efforts

64 THE DARDANELLES

of the Slav nation went far to setting up the
independent states which we now call the Balkan
States. All the territory now held by them once
formed part of the Turkish Empire.

Long before the Ottomans crossed from Asia
to Europe, Rurik, king of the Russians, descended
from his capital of Novgorod to the Black Sea
and laid waste the shores of the Bosphorus. Half
a century later the Russians came again, with
two thousand small boats, and appeared before
the walls of Constantinople. The great city
was too strong for them, and they went away
after plundering the settlements in the Bosphorus
and the Euxine.

Yet a century later we find the Russians allied
to the Eastern Empire, as devout Christians
and members of the Greek Church. This relation
was preserved until the Turk captured Con-
stantinople. Until that time no Russian act
was ever conceived in hostility to the city which
they recognized as the seat of the faith, of which
they were the dutiful children. But soon after
the coming of the Turk, he began to receive
warnings of the growing power of the Slav. In

AND THEIR STORY 65

the reign of Peter the Great the Russians pene-
trated as far south as the Black Sea, and
occupied Azov at the mouth of the river Don.

It is curious, when Russian enterprise is taken
into consideration, to find that Turkey was
driven to espouse the cause of Poland when
seeking a pretext for declaring war. Yet this
took place in 1768, and the battle-ground of the
two warring nations was Moldavia and Wallachia,
the countries that are now Rumania. From
this territory the Turks were driven, and the
Russians set up a protectorate there, which
they had afterward to abandon.

Meanwhile a Russian fleet appeared in the
Mediterranean under Admiral Orloff, avowing
the intention of helping the Greeks to independ-
ence. When the Greeks rose, the Russians
deserted them ; but they beat the Turks in the
naval battle which followed. The English
encouraged Orloff to attack the Dardanelles,
but this the Russians refused to do. The Turks
were tired of the quarrel by this time, and signed
the treaty of Kustchuk Kianardi in 1774. The
principal clause of this treaty threw the Dar-

E

66 THE DARDANELLES

dandles open to Russian merchant ships, which
now had the right to sail on all Turkish waters
and the river Danube.

The Empress Catherine followed up this
advantage by remarkable activity in the region
of the Black Sea, and finally seized the whole
of the Crimea. When the Turks prepared to
resent this, Russia made an astonishing display
of military and naval force. Three great armies
threatened the Turkish frontier, and fleets in
the Baltic and the Black Sea demonstrated
the preparedness of Russia for war. An
actual conflict was averted by this display of
force, and a new treaty was signed, the treaty
of Constantinople.

By this Turkey admitted Russia's claim to
the whole of the Crimea, Taman and Kuban ;
to which places Catherine restored their original
titles of Caucasus and Taurida.

In another year or two a fresh quarrel arose,
out of which Russia gained new advantages,
amplifying those of the treaty of Kainardi.
This treaty was known as the treaty of Jassy.
The danger of Napoleon had the effect of throw-

AND THEIR STORY 67

ing these two inveterate enemies into the same
camp, for the French invasion of Egypt seriously
antagonized the Sultan. In 1798 the world was
treated to the strange spectacle of the massed
fleets of the two powers sailing through the
Dardanelles in company. But Turkey did not
abide for long with her unnatural ally, and a
few years later had espoused the cause of the
French.

The next treaty made between these nations
was that of Adrianople in 1829, after a war during
which Russia had occupied the territory that
is now Rumania no less than eight separate
times. A more serious breach between the two
nations broadened out into the Crimean War
of 1853-54. Once more Turkey was the sufferer,
for in the years following she was bereft of
Rumania, Serbia and Bulgaria, having lost Greece
early in the century.

In the last encounter of all, the real aim of
Russia was made manifest at last. When the
righting of 1878 was suspended by an armistice
made at Adrianople, it was found that the
Russians, disregarding the terms of the armistice,

68 THE DARDANELLES

were advancing on Constantinople with the
avowed intention of occupying the city. It
was then that Great Britain interfered strongly
on behalf of the Turk, and the British fleet was
ordered to enter the Dardanelles. The war con-
cluded with the lamentable peace of San Stefano,
the terms of which were revised at Berlin.

The agreement made by the Powers at Berlin
to keep the Turk at Constantinople has made
that city a veritable stronghold for him ever
since. It will be shown that after war had
broken out with Germany, Britain and the
Powers allied to her preserved the utmost
patience with Turkey in the face of extreme
provocation.

!h ~

•C >

S3 Xi

OQ 2

"3 ~

•a o

•o =

«J I

o

a «

<« "

a o

3 >

O t

c i

(S 2

CHAPTER VIII
The Mastery of the Dardanelles

ONCE in undisputed possession of Constan-
tinople, the Turk took care that no doubt
should exist as to the mastery of the Dardanelles.
As early as 1460 the Sultan Mohammed II forti-
fied the entrance to the Straits, and further forts
were added from time to time by subsequent
Sultans. Turkey's first assertion of mastery
of the passage of the Straits was made by
closing them to the Venetian Republic and the
Knights of St. John.

From that time forward they remained closed
even to merchant traffic, until the Sultan Suley-
man made an abortive attack upon Vienna.
When this was repulsed under the very walls of
the city, he yielded to the unbearable pressure
brought upon him and opened the Straits to
the merchant vessels of Venice and France.
British ships were not long in obtaining the

69

70 THE DARDANELLES

same right, but it was not until 1774 that the
Dardanelles were opened to Russian merchant-
men from the Black Sea.

In this policy the Turk had, at the outset,
the support of Russia herself. It must not be
overlooked that from her very beginning as
a nation Russia was a self-contained nation,
developing from within, and had more to fear
at that time from interference from outside
than from any check to her commerce with
more westerly nations.

As the power of Russia developed, however,
the desire of that nation to maintain a fleet in
the Black Sea, and to use the Dardanelles as
a means of exit, became more manifest. The
policy of the Western nations of Europe led
them to oppose any such arrangement, and in
1809 we find Great Britain entering into an
agreement with Turkey to prevent the warships
of any nation passing the Dardanelles. This
arrangement was broken by Turkey herself when
she made the Treaty of Khurkar-Iskelesi with
Russia in 1833. By this treaty the Sultan
Mahmud II granted to Russia the sole right of

AND THEIR STORY 71

passage, in return for Russian assistance against
the Khedive of Egypt, Mohammed Ali, who
was in revolt at the time.

Owing to the pressure of the other powers
this permission was revoked in 1841, when a
treaty regarding the Straits was made forbidding
their passage by any warship in time of peace.
This arrangement held good until the Crimean
War, when the Sultan permitted a combined
French and British fleet to pass through the
Dardanelles and to anchor off Constantinople.
The Crimean War was ended by the Treaty
of Paris, one of the main points of which was
the settlement of the right of passage through
the Dardanelles.

The effect of the Treaty of Paris is to establish
the principle that there should be no Russian
or Turkish fleet in the Black Sea. Article XI
of the Treaty runs : " The Black Sea is neutral-
ized ; its waters and ports thrown open to the
mercantile marine of every nation are formally
and in perpetuity interdicted to the flag of war,
either of the Powers possessing its coasts or any
other Power."

72 THE DARDANELLES

As a corollary to this decision a Convention
was attached to the Treaty to the effect that
the Sultan should allow no foreign warship to
pass the Dardanelles in time of peace.

Russia signed the Treaty of Paris, but later
took occasion to repudiate it. The occasion was
the conclusion of the war of 1870, between
France and Germany, when the Czar found
himself in a strong position and his European
opponents in a weak one. The occasion was a
favourable one to put an end to the neutrality
of the Black Sea, and Russia formally protested
against the principle.

A conference of the European Powers was
held in London in 1871, Lord Granville pre-
siding. The Russian protest was considered,
and the Treaty of London was signed, permitting
Russia to maintain a fleet in the Black Sea.
But the treaty was emphatic on the point that
warships were not to pass through the Dar-
danelles in either peace or war, the right to stop
them being entrusted to the Sultan, who, of
course, governed both shores.

The wording of the clause in question was as

AND THEIR STORY 73

follows : — " The principle of the closing of the
Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus,
such as it has been established by the separate
Convention, is maintained with power to his
Majesty the Sultan, in time of peace, to open
the said straits to vessels of war of the friendly
and allied Powers, in the event that the Sublime
Porte should consider it necessary — in order to
secure the execution of the stipulations of the
Treaty of Paris."

The full meaning of this was later deliberated
at the Congress of Berlin, where the Marquis of
Salisbury put forward the contention that the
Sultan was not bound automatically to close
the Dardanelles upon any warship preparing
to make the passage of them, but that the closing
was an act of free will on his part. Count
Schuvalloff, for Russia, maintained that the
Straits were closed against all foreign warships
automatically ; but no decision on this point
was taken.

The Treaty of Berlin, however, confirmed the
provisions of the Treaty of London as far as
they gave the Sultan power to close the Dar-

74 THE DARDANELLES

dandles, and that power has been exerted by
Turkey without question ever since.

It is one thing to hold the mastery of the
Dardanelles, and another thing to enforce it.
So at least the Turks have found on many
occasions in the history of their occupation of
Constantinople. Even in the days of sailing
ships, when vessels must have been at the mercy
of the forts, except with a very favourable wind,
the passage of the Straits has been forced in the
face of opposition. More recently the same
feat has been performed by warships steaming
through the narrow Straits and anchoring off
Constantinople.

There are, on the other hand, numerous in-
stances of the closure proving effective to prevent
a hostile fleet from venturing to attempt more
than a blockade of the entrance. After the
establishment of the forts at the entrance, the
first nation to enter with hostile intent were the
Venetians, who on three occasions took their
warships into the Straits, and once gave battle
to a Turkish fleet there.

Later, in 1770, seven Russian warships, com-

AND THEIR STORY 75

manded by Admiral Elphinstone, made a hostile
entry, and sailed through the Straits without the
Turks being able to molest them. An even
more remarkable demonstration was made by
Admiral Duckworth with a British fleet in the
year 1807. His squadron consisted of eight
sail of the line, two frigates, and two smaller
craft.

He entered the Dardanelles from the Mediter-
ranean, being favoured by a following wind, and
had actually passed the Narrows before any
attempt was made to defend the Straits. Even
then the resistance was very feeble, and with
no more damage than is represented by the loss
of six men killed and fifty-one wounded, the
fleet entered the Sea of Marmora and anchored
off Constantinople. His position there was com-
plicated by the circumstance that there was no
intention of bombarding the city, and without
proceeding to that extremity his demonstration
was doomed to failure.

Within a few days the whole country was
armed against him, and there was nothing for it
but to get back by the best way he could find.

76 THE DARDANELLES

Unfortunately he was not favoured by either
wind or current on his return journey. He was
forced to tack about under the very guns of the
forts at the Narrows, and these took full advan-
tage of the opportunity. The guns were charged
with huge stone shot weighing as much as 800
pounds, and the British squadron suffered very
severely. On the return passage he lost twenty-
nine killed and 139 wounded, having proved little
by his expedition except the carelessness of
the Turks. Without that factor he would
probably not have succeeded in getting past
the Narrows on his journey to Constantinople.

Once outside he resorted to the more effective
means of a close blockade, and want of food
brought the Turks to reason where his display
of daring had failed. The same course was
successfully followed, in preference to an attempt
to force the passage, by the Russians in 1829.

During the Crimean War a combined fleet of
British and French warships passed through
the Straits and entered the Black Sea, of course
with the permission of Turkey. The same per-
mission was not granted to Admiral Hornby,

AND THEIR STORY 77

who took a fleet up to Constantinople in 1878.
The vessels were the Alexandra, Agincourt,
Achilles, Swiftsnre, Temeraire, Sultan, and the
dispatch boat Salamis. When they got off the
forts of the Narrows, a message was delivered
by the governor of the forts to Hornby. It
was that the Turks, " actuated by motives of
humanity," refused to fire. Hornby then pro-
ceeded on his way to Constantinople, delivered
the ultimatum with which he was charged, and
returned unmolested.

It was after this occurrence that the arming
of the forts was taken in hand by the German
experts, and the defences of the Dardanelles
became really formidable. In modern times the
forts were supported by minefields very cleverly
and effectively placed, and they have proved
too much for any of Turkey's recent enemies.
The Italians, for instance, at the time of the
Tripolitan War, took their fleet to the mouth
of the Straits and then showed the discretion
that is the better part of valour. Similarly
in the Balkan War no attempt was made by the
Allies to force the entrance to the Straits, or

78 THE DARDANELLES

to test the formidable minefields that were laid
within the Dardanelles.

It is worthy of note, however, that the great
Powers objected to the closing of the Straits
on this occasion, and all sent warships through
the Dardanelles to anchor off Constantinople
and, if necessary, protect the lives and property
of the Christian inhabitants. On that occasion
Germany made a great show, sending her newest
battleship, the afterwards notorious Goeben,
while Great Britain was content with less naval
display. A small thing, but one which those
who know the Turk declare had a potent influ-
ence in driving him to the destruction which
now awaits him.

CHAPTER IX
The German Plot in Turkey

FOR quite a generation Germany has exer-
cised a great influence over Turkey ; an
influence which increased as time went on, and
ended in precipitating the Ottoman Empire
into a war which must mean its eventual ruin.
The beginnings of this German influence can
be traced in transactions in arms, for the Turks
spent money freely with Krupp's, just as they
borrowed freely from the German financiers.
In their effort to reorganize their army after
the blow of the Russo-Turkish War they turned
to Germany as a model, and German methods
were taught to the Turkish soldiers by German
officers, at the head of whom was General von
der Goltz.

With the Sultan Abdul Hamid German in-
fluence finally became paramount, thanks to
the skilled diplomacy of the German Ambas-

79

80 THE DARDANELLES

sador, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein. It was
due to the influence of this genial giant that
a German company obtained the notorious con-
cession to build the Bagdad railway. The original
concession, granted in 1899, was for an extension
of the railway from Konieh, in Asia Minor, to
Basra, on the Persian Gulf. The line was to
pass through Bagdad, and the valleys of the
Tigris and Euphrates, the sphere of British
influence in Persia.

It is interesting, in the light of what has since
happened, to examine the reception at the time
of this scheme by the other Powers concerned.
The open hostility of Russia was the most
notable result of the announcement when first
made. Very obviously such a railway would
have strategical as well as commercial signi-
ficance. It was not to be expected that Russia
would favour the construction of a line by means
of which Turkish troops could be rapidly moved
to the Russian frontier or to Persia.

France already had railway interests in Asia
Minor, and it was proposed to conciliate the
holders of these with a liberal offer of shares

AND THEIR STORY 81

in the new road. In France the matter was
regarded from the financial standpoint purely,
the political significance of the concession being
overlooked. And in 1899 there was a strong
disposition among French financiers to support
the railway.

England was also invited by Germany to
put capital into the new railroad, the German
condition for the granting of this doubtful
privilege being that the Indian mails should be
carried upon the line, when constructed. When
the scheme for the control of the road came to
be elaborated, it was found that Germany pro-
posed to keep it entirely in German hands. In
other words, France and Great Britain were
asked to provide the bulk of the money for a
railway to be managed in German interests.

From that time forward the opposition to
the railwa}/ grew in this country, the reasons
for it being embodied in a statement made in
the House of Lords in 1903 by Lord Lansdowne,
who said —

" It seems to me that our policy should be
directed in the first place to protect and pro-

82 THE DARDANELLES

mote British trade in these waters. In the
second place I do not think that we should suggest
that these efforts should be directed towards
the exclusion of the legitimate trade of other
Powers. In the third place, we should regard
the establishment of a naval base or of a fortified
position in the Persian Gulf by any other Power
as a very grave menace to British interests, and
we should certainly resent it with all the means
at our disposal."

Then, at the prompting of the German Ambas-
sador, the Turkish Government proposed to
raise the Turkish Customs duties from eight to
eleven per cent, and to devote the surplus money
to the building of the railway. It must be
understood that the Powers control the Turkish
Tariff, in their capacity as administrators of
the Ottoman debt, in the interest of the bond-
holders. The proposal was considered by the
Powers, and permission to raise the Customs
tariff for such a purpose was refused.

It was seen by this time that the whole scheme
was an attempt to advance German business
interests in the East at the expense of Turkey,

AND THEIR STORY 83

and at the same time to forge a weapon against
the Triple Entente, to be used in such circum-
stances as have now arisen. An understanding
arose between the three nations of the Entente
that no assistance should be given in the con-
struction of this railway, unless more attention
were paid to their own interests, and the pre-
ponderance of German influence in the scheme
was removed.

The failure of the attempts to finance this
road was adroitly used by Baron Marschall
to increase his influence with the Palace, and
he had the support of the Kaiser himself, given
in no half-hearted fashion. The incident of
the Mediterranean tour and the speech made
at its conclusion by the Kaiser will be fresh
in the minds of most readers. In that speech
the Kaiser made a direct bid for the support
of Mohammedans, declaring that he took the
religion and those who practised it under his
protection.

With the Turkish revolution one might have
expected a critical time for German influence
at Constantinople. Baron Marschall had always

84 THE DARDANELLES

been an acceptable personality to the Sultan,
and was known to the Young Turk party as
the representative of the power which had gained
most from the regime of corruption they sought
to end. It will always be considered the supreme
achievement of this astute diplomatist that he
was soon in higher favour with the new regime
than he had been with the old.

He approached the Young Turks with a
manner of the greatest frankness. " It is true,"
he said in effect, " that I endeavoured in every
way to conciliate the tyrant who has now been
deposed. That was but my duty. And now
that a constitutional form of government has
been set up, with how much greater pleasure
will I perform my duties, since they do not
include anything so distasteful as that was to
me."

Thus the revolution, instead of shattering
the German influence in Turkey, only served
to consolidate it. It was so hardy a plant that
it even survived the military disillusion of the
Balkan War, when the Turkish army, trained
to German tactics by von der Goltz, and armed

AND THEIR STORY 85

by Krupp, crumpled up before the despised
Balkan allies. Indeed, that humiliation was
made to serve as an excuse for the appoint-
ment of a German military mission, headed
by General Liman von Sanders, to undertake
the reorganization of the Turkish army.

That appointment, like the Bagdad railway
concession, was opposed most uncompromis-
ingly by Russia. The First corps of the Turkish
army stationed at Constantinople wielded no
little political influence. The appointment for
five years of a German general to so influential
a post was held to threaten the outlet to the
Mediterranean, which it was imperative Russia
should preserve. The event showed that there
was only too good ground for the Russian fears.
The appointment of Liman Pasha was made
at the end of 1913, and within six months he
had made the Turkish army a German tool.

He found a ready accomplice in Enver Bey,
the Minister for War, who was still smarting
under the blow of the Balkan War. How this
bellicose individual, egged on by his German
accomplice, managed to throw his country into

86 THE DARDANELLES

war in spite of the exertions of a genuine peace
party in Turkey, is told in another chapter.
Some of the results of Liman Pasha's adminis-
tration may be recapitulated here.

When the European War broke out, repeated
and solemn protestations of neutrality were
made by the Turkish Government. At the
same time German garrisons were being installed
in the forts of the Dardanelles, and a German
officer was given command of the defences.
German officers by scores arrived each day at
Constantinople, and German guns and ammuni-
tion as well. Six weeks after the declaration
of war by Germany, the British Ambassador
at Constantinople was forced to make the fol-
lowing complaint to the Grand Vizier : —

" Constantinople and the neighbourhood formed
nothing but an armed German camp. Many
more German officers and men had arrived,
and there must now be between 4,000 and 5,000
German soldiers and sailors here. We all,
including his Highness, were at the mercy of
Liman Pasha and the Minister of War."

The last German inducement has still to be

AND THEIR STORY 87

mentioned. By the end of September, the
German cause looked as badly as it had done
at any time during the whole period of the war
up to the present. The full extent of the disaster
on the Marne had now been realized, the Russian
danger was manifest and pressing.

The intention of the Turkish war party was
to seize an opportunity for intervention in the
war when the cause of the Germans was flourish-
ing and intervention was likely to be popular.
The German desire was to induce intervention
at a time when it would do most good to Ger-
many, and cause distraction in the pressing
ranks of Germany's enemies. Germany chose
her time at the beginning of October, and her
means in accordance with Turkish custom.

Early in October, the British Ambassador
in Constantinople reports large consignments
of German gold began to arrive in Constanti-
nople. In all, some two or three millions ster-
ling arrived in the course of a few days. It
hardly seems worth while to say where it went,
or that the participation of Turkey in the war
was no longer a matter of doubt.

CHAPTER X
Turkey Seals her Doom

THE dogged persistence with which Turkey
blundered into war against the Allied
Powers forms one of the most surprising chapters
of the amazing history of the year 191 4. In
the first place there was not a shadow of legi-
timate grievance on her part, though excep-
tion was taken by the Turkish Government to
the requisitioning of some warships that were
being built in England to the order of the Turkish
Government. This act of the British Govern-
ment was in accordance with international usage,
and was necessary under the circumstances.

It was described by the Grand Vizier as an
unfriendly act. But while complaining of this
act, the Turkish Government reiterated pro-
mises of neutrality ; and, in return, the Powers
of the Entente guaranteed to Turkey her inte-
grity in any peace that might be made. There

88

THE DARDANELLES 89

were abundant reasons why those Powers, and
especially Great Britain, should wish to prevent
Turkey from participating in the conflict.

When the war was declared there were in
the Mediterranean two German warships, the
battle cruiser Goeben, and the light cruiser Bres-
lau. These ships, after bombarding one or two
towns on the African coast, were hotly pursued
by the British and French ships, and almost
captured in the Straits of Messina. From that
position they extricated themselves in some
manner that has yet to be recorded, and on
August 10 entered the Dardanelles.

Turkey's position toward these ships was
perfectly clear ; she must, after the due time
had elapsed, intern them in accordance with
the rules of international law. Instead of doing
so, the Turkish Government stated they had
bought the ships from Germany, and that their
ofhcers and men would be allowed to return
to Germany. The British Government insisted
on this taking place at once, and on the ships
only reappearing as Turkish ships with Turkish
crews. To this end Admiral Limpus, who was

go THE DARDANELLES

at the head of a British mission for the reor-
ganization of the Turkish fleet, asked that the
ships should be provided with Turkish crews
at once. He was promptly removed from his
command, and asked to remain within the Minis-
try of Marine. It then became necessary for
Great Britain to withdraw the naval mission,
and this was done.

In the meantime the German crews stuck
to the ships, and even repaired some damage
that had been done to the Goeben in a skirmish
with the British cruiser Gloucester. A month
after the ships entered the Dardanelles the German
crews were still aboard them, the explanation
being that they were being kept to train the
Turkish crews. The promise to send away the
German crews was made time after time ; but
it was never kept.

During all this period the promises of neutra-
lity were frequently renewed, though they were
accompanied by demands which amounted to
conditions. These demands were : —

The abolition of the Capitulations.

The return of the requisitioned warships.

AND THEIR STORY 91

Renunciation of any interference with the

internal affairs of Turkey.
If Bulgaria should intervene against the Triple
Entente, Western Thrace to be given back
to Turkey.
The Greek Islands to be returned to Tur-
key.
The Capitulations referred to in these demands
are certain privileges secured by treaty to sub-
jects of foreign Powers residing in Turkey ; they
are not tried, for instance, by Turkish Courts,
but by consular jurisdiction. Following the
demand for their abolition, the Grand Vizier
announced that the Capitulations had been
abolished; in other words, that Turkey was
taking advantage of the situation to break
its solemn treaties. Against this step all the
Powers protested — including Germany ; but the
British Ambassador was instructed to consider
and discuss reasonable concessions on the sub-
ject. This moderate tone on the part of the
British Government was due to the fact that
the Peace party in Turkey laid some stress on
the desired abolition of the Capitulations, and

92 THE DARDANELLES

the British desire was to strengthen in every
way the hands of the party for peace.

One of the principal objects in striving to
keep Turkey out of the war was the wish to
keep the Dardanelles open for commerce. But
now Turkey, though bound by treaty to permit
the passage of merchant vessels, began to hold
British ships up. Grain ships and ships with
passengers were detained at Constantinople and
refused papers ; grain ships were even stopped
in the Straits and ordered to put back to Con-
stantinople. The obvious object was to requi-
sition grain and other stores, when the time
should come.

The excuse made was that mines had got
adrift from the field, and that the vessels were
detained so that no accidents should happen.
In the meantime the mining of the Straits was
extended, the work being supervised by a Ger-
man in such a way as practically to close the
Straits to merchant traffic.

Another question constantly under discus-
sion was Egypt, which country, though acknow-
ledging Turkey's suzerainty, was being adminis-

AND THEIR STORY 93

tered by Great Britain. The report was spread,
and repeated in high quarters, that the inten-
tion of Great Britain was to annex Egypt. To
this report a definite statement was made, to
the effect that if Turkey remained neutral and
Egypt quiet, there would be no alteration in
the status of that country.

At the same time preparations were being
openly made for the invasion of Egypt from
Asia Minor ; German officers appeared in Syria
and began training troops there, arms were
distributed in large quantities to the Bedouins,
and Dr. Priiffer, a German attached to the
Embassy at Constantinople, was busily engaged
in Syria inciting the people to attack Egypt.
In Egypt itself Turkish and German emissaries
were busy trying to stir up a revolt.

It was then that the appeal to the religious
belief of the Turk was made. Moslem emis-
saries appeared everywhere, stirring up feeling
against Britain and in favour of Germany. The
Turkish Press was employed to print statements
that were traceable to the German Embassy,
all of the most untrue description. They repre-

94 THE DARDANELLES

sented Germany as the friend of the Mohamme-
dan faith, and Britain as its bitter enemy. The
statement appeared in these newspapers that
the Ameer of Afghanistan had declared a Holy
War and invaded India. The ignorant Moslems
of whole districts were found to believe that
the Kaiser had embraced the faith of Islam,
and was fighting for Islam against Russia.

Throughout this maze of intrigue it is easy to
follow the tactics of the combatants : Germany
and Great Britain. Germany had just as much
interest in dragging Turkey into the war as
Britain had in keeping her out of it. But it
is indeed difficult to follow the mental processes
of the Turk, and to gauge the motives which
involved him in war. The temptation to play
off one side against the other was a great one ;
and by handling the opportunity skilfully the
Turk might have consolidated his position in
Europe for another century. That such was
the aim of some at least of the Turkish Ministers
seems tolerably certain. The lack of skill they
displayed, and the force of their more warlike
colleagues, lost them the opportunity for ever.

AND THEIR STORY 95

The breach occurred at the end of October,
in spite of the strenuous efforts of the Allied
Powers to avoid it. On the 26th of that month
a strong force of armed Bedouins invaded Egypt ;
and three days later Turkish torpedo boats
bombarded Odessa. The Allies demanded the
dismissal of the German naval and military
missions, as a disavowal by Turkey of these
acts of hostility ; the demand was not complied
with, and war was declared.

The consequences of this folly on the part of
Turkey were elucidated a few days afterwards
by Mr. Asquith in his speech delivered at the
Guildhall on November 9th : —

" When this war began three months ago we
made it clear, in conjunction with our Allies, to
the Turkish Government that if they remained
neutral their Empire should not suffer in inte-
grity or in authority. The statesmen of that
unhappy polity, sharply divided in opinion,
vacillating in council from day to day, allowed
their true interests to be undermined and over-
borne by German threats, by German ships,
by German gold. They were tempted to one

96 THE DARDANELLES

futile outrage after another — first the lawless
bombardment of Russian open ports, then the
equally lawless intrusion into Egyptian terri-
tory— until the Allies, Russia, France, and
ourselves, who had withstood with unexampled
patience a protracted series of flouts, veiled
menaces, and impudent equivocations, were com-
pelled to yield to the logic of facts and to recog-
nize Turkey as an open enemy.

" I wish to make it clear, not only to my fellow-
countrymen, but to the world outside, that this
is not our doing. It is in spite of our hopes
and efforts and against our will. It is not the
Turkish people, it is the Ottoman Government
that has drawn the sword, and which, I do not
hesitate to predict, will perish by the sword.
It is they and not we who have rung the death
knell of the Ottoman dominion, not only in
Europe, but in Asia. With their disappearance,
at least, will disappear, as I at least hope and
believe, the blight which for generations past
has withered some of the fairest regions of the
earth.

" We have no quarrel with the Mussulman

AND THEIR STORY

97

subjects of the Sultan. Our Sovereign claims
amongst the most loyal of his subjects millions
of men who hold the Mussulman faith. Noth-
ing is further from our thoughts or intentions
than to initiate or encourage a crusade against
their creed. Their Holy Places we are prepared,
if any such need should arise, to defend against
all invaders and keep them inviolate.

" The Turkish Empire has committed suicide,
and dug with its own hands its grave."

CHAPTER XI
The Balkans on the Fence

THE condition of the Balkan States under
Turkish rule was anything but enviable,
yet religious and other differences prevented
any united action among them for quite five
hundred years. The Turkish method was to
foment the jealousies existing among them, and
to emphasize the cardinal points of difference
in their religious creeds, setting Greek Church
against Catholic. Each State shook off the
Turkish yoke separately — Bulgaria so recently
as 1878 — and they were no more united as free
states than they were in bondage.

There remained a large proportion of men
of their own race still under Turkish rule, and
the persecutions to which these Christian sub-
jects of the Sultan were subjected at last formed
a rallying point. In 1912 a Balkan League
was formed, with the avowed object of protecting

98

THE DARDANELLES 99

the Christians of Macedonia from the intolerable
cruelty of the Turk. From this league Rumania
held aloof, but Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and
Montenegro all subscribed to it.

After a short and half-hearted attempt at
negotiation, the attack on Turkey was made by
all four States at once. The result was a sur-
prise to the world. The Bulgarians and Serbians
proved too much for the Turks at every encounter ;
they could not even withstand the Greeks and
the Montenegrins. Defeated at two great battles
of Kirk Kilisse and Lule Burgas, they were
driven back to the very walls of Constantinople.
They lost Adrianople, and the only question left
to be settled was the exact condition of peace.

At the opening of the war, Count Berchtold had
distinctly stated on behalf of Austria that at
the end of the war the Powers would not permit
any modification of the territorial status quo
of Turkey. This statement was also collectively
made to the Porte by the Powers. But in the
face of the overwhelming defeat of the Turkish
arms, the Powers were not able to live up to
their undertaking. They had unwillingly to sub-

ioo THE DARDANELLES

mit to see the Sick Man deprived of another
part of his estate. This is the grievance of
Enver Pasha and the war party in Constan-
tinople.

Peace was signed in London in the early part
of 1 913, Turkey giving up all the mainland
west of a line drawn from Enos to Midia, and
the Greek Islands as well. The new kingdom
of Albania was constituted, a large sum was
paid to Montenegro by way of compensation ;
and the Balkan allies began to quarrel forthwith.

Bulgaria quarrelled with Serbia and Greece
on the division of the spoil, and at the critical
moment Rumania sided with Serbia. On
June 30, 1913, the second Balkan war broke
out, in which the power of Bulgaria was utterly
crushed. There can be no doubt that the action
of Rumania saved the Balkans from a long-
protracted and suicidal war. But it left a bitter
taste behind it.

As a result of its splendid fighting against
Turkey, Bulgaria finished with a loss of 100,000
of the pick of her fighting men. In hard cash
she had spent £40, 000,000. The conquered terri-

AND THEIR STORY 101

tory of Macedonia had been divided between
Serbia and Greece. Thrace, won by her from
Turkey, had been reclaimed by that power.
Finally Rumania had deprived her of a large
tract of fertile land, occupied by an industrious
population.

Had the Balkan States refrained from these
suicidal disputes, it is quite likely that the Euro-
pean war would not have broken out ; it is at
least certain that some other pretext must have
been found for it. But the differences occurred,
the Austrian attack was made on Serbia, and
Europe was plunged into the great war. From
the outset, of course, Serbia and Montenegro
have participated, acting with the Triple Entente.

From the very beginning of the struggle the
attitude of the other Balkan States was of the
utmost importance. All that Germany could hope
or expect was neutrality, and to secure that
end she put forward every effort. The pro-
bability was, however, that some, if not all the
States, would join the Allies, since motives
of policy and interest impelled them to that
course.

102 THE DARDANELLES

The effect of an unanimous rising in the Balkan
peninsula against Austria would have been very
unpleasant for that Power, which in the early
days of the war had much to do to resist the
attacks of the Russians and Serbians. The case
of Serbia might have been the case of any of
them, most certainly it might have been that
of Rumania. Russia must have acted as guardian
of the Slav interest in that case equally with the
case of Serbia. Bulgaria, too, was the war
pupil of France ; was armed with French weapons
and trained by French officers. No reason for
participation in the war was lacking.

The initial difficulty was the former quarrel.
Bulgaria would willingly have come to Serbia's
aid, but required the return of the territory
wrested away after the Balkan war. Rumania
preferred to wait until she saw what Bulgaria
might do. Greece was governed by a Royal
Family closely allied to that of Germany ; —
the Queen of Greece is the Kaiser's sister. The
Balkan States did not move.

Then Turkey came into the war, and a new
motive for participation was supplied. But by

AND THEIR STORY 103

this time these States occupied a comfortable
position astride the fence, and had begun to
calculate possibilities. They saw, what the whole
world saw, that the war had everywhere been
carried into the territory of the Allies. Germany
was in possession of all but a fractional portion
of Belgium, and was administering it as a new
German province. The massed millions of Russia
were rolled back by the Austro-German forces
each time they came forward to the attack.
The German line stretched across the north
of France, immovable for a whole winter. The
citizens of the Balkans formed the opinion that
the Germans were winning, as far as the war
had gone.

This buffer of neutral Balkan territory was
as much a convenience to Austria and Germany
as it was a hindrance to the plans of Russia.
With Rumania in the war, a fresh point of attack
and a vulnerable one would be opened on the
Austrian flank. A neutral Rumania merely
signified a useful medium by which arms and
war material could be conveyed from Germany
to Turkey. But Bulgaria and Rumania con-

104 THE DARDANELLES

tinued to stare sullenly at one another, and
neither would consent to lift a finger.

Meanwhile in Greece a crisis had arisen over
the non-participation of the nation in the war.
M. Venizelos, the Prime Minister, had popular
feeling behind him in his desire that the country
should range itself beside the Allies. He had
to meet a conservative opposition backed by
the Royal tie already alluded to. The crisis
culminated in the resignation of M. Venizelos.
This act was rapidly followed by the dispatch
of a letter from the Kaiser to his sister the Queen
of Greece, the object of which was to restrain
Greece from taking up arms. It was a tissue
of unveiled threats.

So, in mutual distrust and craven fear, the
Balkan allies sat " on the fence " regarding
the European conflagration, when the attack
was launched against the Dardanelles. The point
has to be emphasized that they could do Germany
no greater service, and the Allies no greater
disservice, than by preserving their neutrality.
It has to be repeated that self-interest, gratitude
and every other motive must have prompted

AND THEIR STORY 105

them to interfere, and that financial difficulties
were easy of adjustment.

All these things are to be taken into account
when the day of final settlement arrives. The
petty jealousy that has retarded the develop-
ment of the Balkan States for five centuries
has again proved the obstacle to the realization
of the ambitions of the best of their leaders.
It still remains to be seen what effect the fall
of Constantinople will have upon their wavering
councils.

CHAPTER XII
The Defences of the Dardanelles

THE Turks had not been long in possession
of Constantinople when they sought, with
the aid of the heaviest guns known, to make
it impregnable from sea attack. They began
fortifying the Straits as long ago as 1460, when
Mohammed II built two forts at the Mediter-
ranean entrance. Very considerable fortifications
were added by Mohammed IV in 1650, especially
at the Narrows ; and from time to time other
works were added to the defences of the Dar-
danelles.

The whole scheme of fort defence was over-
hauled by the Germans in 1870, when the defences
were equipped with the biggest and most power-
ful guns then in existence. Among these was
a 50-ton gun by Krupp, and twenty-five 11-inch
Krupp guns, as well as smaller ordnance of the
best patterns then existing. The Balkan War

106

THE DARDANELLES 107

afforded the Germans another reason for
strengthening the fortifications and bringing the
guns up to date ; while during the first six months
of the European War, German experts were
constantly at work reinforcing the defences of
the channel.

From official dispatches published since the
attack of the Allied fleets was begun on February
20, 1 91 5, the following forts can be described
by the numbers given to them in Admiralty
documents. By means of the accompanying
map and these distinguishing letters the position
and strategic value of each fort can be judged : —

A. Cape Hellas (Europe) : Two 0/2-inch guns.

B. Seddul Bahr (Europe) : Six io-2-inch guns.

C. Orkhanieh Tabia (Asia) : Two 0/ 2-inch guns.

D. Kum Kalossi Tabia (Asia) : Four 10 -2-inch and two

5-9-inch guns.

E. Dardanus (Asia) : Four 5-9-inch guns.

F. (Europe)

G. (Asia)
Hh. Kephez (Asia)

I. (Europe)

J. Rumilieh Medjidieh Tabia (Europe) : Two 11-inch, four

9 4-inch, five 3-4-inch guns.
K.
L. Hamidieh II Tabia (Europe) : Two 14-inch guns.

108 THE DARDANELLES

M.
N.
0.
P. J Forts at Kilid Bahr.

Q-

R.

S. /

T. Namazieh (Europe) : One u-inch, one io- 2-inch, eleven

9-4-inch, three 8-2-inch, three 5-9-inch guns.

U. Hamidieh I Tabia (Asia) : Two 14-inch and

seven 9-4-inch guns. Forts at

V. Hamidieh III (Asia) : Two 14-inch, one 9 -4-inch Chanak.

one 8-2-inch, and four 5-9-inch guns.

(Asia)

(Do.)

(Do.)
Forts at (Da)

Nagara. (Da

(Europe) .
(Do.)
(Do.)
(Do.)

It will sufficiently localize these forts if it is
explained that A, B, C, D are situated at the
mouth of the Straits ; E, F, G, H and I are between
the mouth and the Narrows ; and the forts
J to T inclusive form a dense group on the Euro-
pean shore at the Narrows. Collectively they
are known as Kilid Bahr, or the Key of the

AND THEIR STORY 109

Straits. The powerful forts U and V are situated
at Chanak, on the Asian side of the Narrows ;
while the other forts specified are between the
Narrows and Gallipoli, Y, Z and AA being
situated at Nagara.

The forts are further protected by extensive
minefields, the first of which had been laid
across the passage from Kephez to Fort F on
the European side. A further and even more
extensive minefield had been laid at the entrance
to the Narrows, between Chanak and Kilid
Bahr. These were anchored mines, but even
more dangerous were the floating mines launched
from higher up the Straits, and borne down to
the attacking vessels by a four-mile current.

For the further protection of the Straits there
was an abundance of field guns and light howit-
zers, very mobile considering their power. These
could be moved from place to place as the neces-
sities of defence might dictate. Their effect-
iveness against an armoured ship was practically
nothing, but they were very useful for attacking
mine-sweepers and torpedo craft. To this end
their extreme mobility was expected to prove

no THE DARDANELLES

valuable, and the strategists who formed these
expectations were not disappointed.

Reference must further be made to the tor-
pedo tubes installed at intervals along either
shore. They constituted a grave danger in com-
bination with the mines and the swift current
flowing down the channel.

The question whether such forts as these
could be reduced from the sea alone had long
been decided in the negative by the strategists.
The principle is laid down in a passage by Admiral
Mahan, which has met with general acceptance
among experts —

" Ships are unequally matched against forts
in the particular sphere of forts ; just as cavalry
and infantry are not equal, either to the other,
in the other's sphere. A ship can no more stand
up against a fort, costing the same amount of
money, than the fort could run a race with a
ship. The quality of the one is ponderousness,
enabling great passive strength ; that of the
other is mobility."

It will be observed that only one qualification
is made to this dictum ; forts and ships must

AND THEIR STORY in

cost the same amount of money. In other
words, the armament of both must be approxi-
mately equal. The interesting test to which
the theory was to be put in the Dardanelles
violated this condition, since the attacking ships
were armed with guns far more powerful than
anything the forts contained. In this, doubtless,
lay the hopes of success for the attack.

In another direction a new value was dis-
covered for the mobile ship as against the immo-
bile fort. Much of the firing was directed at
unseen objects, and at enormously long ranges.
In a dual between a stationary fort and a mobile
super-dreadnought, carried on with the lofty
hills of the Gallipoli peninsula intervening, great
advantage necessarily lay with the mobile body.

This advantage was emphasized by a factor
never considered by Mahan, the observer in
the aeroplane. By this means, and by the
excessive range of such guns as the 15-inch
mounted by the Queen Elizabeth, the advan-
tages of ponderousness possessed by the forts
were negatived, and the forts, qua forts, were
proved to have much the worst of the deal.

H2 THE DARDANELLES

In the account that will be given of the attack
on the Dardanelles, it will be shown that their
best defence was not the forts, but the natural
advantages for defence of the Straits and the
skilful way in which they were utilized.

CHAPTER XIII
The Attack from the Sea

EARLY in February, 1915, a very considerable
fleet of warships had been collected by the
Allies in the Eastern Mediterranean. It comprised
some tolerably antique battleships, as well as
the newest and most powerfully armed vessel
in the British Navy. Complementary to the
warships was a squadron of mine-sweepers, and
the aeroplane ship Ark Royal, with a number
of flying machines.

Among the battleships and cruisers the more
notable were : —

British Battleships.

Dis-

Com- place- Thickest
Ship. pleted. ment. Armour.

Tons. Guns.

Majestic 1805 1 . . r.

r, . „ „ r \ 14,000 0 in. 4 12-in. 12 6-in.

Prince George 1896 j

Canopus . . . . \

Vengeance . . I

Alhion r 1900-2 12,950 6 in. 4 12-in. 12 6-in.

Ocean /

113 H

ii4 THE DARDANELLES

British Battleships.

Dis-
Com- place- Thickest
Sliip. pleted. ment. Armour.

Tons. Guns.

Duncan . . ,
Cornwallis
Triumph .
Swifts ure .

r 1904 14,000 7-in. 4 12-in. 12 6-in.

'1 1904 11,800 7 in. 4 10-in. 147.5-in.

Irresistible . . 1901 15,000 9 in. 4 12-in. 12 6-in.

Agamemnon . ) n ,

r , ,_ , \ iqo8 16,500 12 111. 4 12-in. 10 Q-2-in.

Lord Nelson .) J J ^

* Inflexible . . 1908 17,250 7 in. 8 12-in. 16 4-in.

* Queen

Elizabeth . 1914 27,500 13 in. 8 15-in. 12 6-in.
British Cruisers.
Euryalus . . . 1903 12,000 6 in. 2 9.2-in. 12 6-in.

Dublin 1912 5,400 — 8 6-in.

Sapphire 1905 3,000 — 12 4-in.

French Battleships.

Suffren 1903 12,527 nf in. 4 12-in. 10 6.4-in.

Gaulois 1899 11,082 15! in. 4 12-in. 10 5.5-in.

Bouvet 1898 12,007 I5iin. 2 12-in. 210.8-in.,

8 5.5-in.
Charlemagne 1899 11,260 16 in. 4 12-in. 10 5.5-in.
Jaureguiberry 1895 11,900 18 in. 2 12-in. 2 10.8-in.,

8 5-5-in.

It is worthy of note that, with the exception
of the Queen Elizabeth, the Inflexible, the Aga-

* Dreadnought battle cruiser and Dreadnought battleship respec-
tively.

AND THEIR STORY 115

memnon and Lord Nelson, all these were prac-
tically obsolete British battleships. None of
the four French vessels was of very modern
design, but some of the British ships were real
veterans. Before the outbreak of the war, the
Vengeance had been in port with only a nucleus
crew ; the Cornwallis was a unit of the Third
Fleet ; and the Triumph was in reserve. The
Majestic and Prince George, of course, antedate
these in design, and their use in important opera-
tions would have created wild alarm in the
bosoms of ante-war critics and experts.

On February 19, however, this squadron
began the bombardment of the outer forts of
the Dardanelles. Their plan of operations was
to silence the forts at the mouth of the Straits,
and then send in the minesweepers to clear a
passage for the entrance of the warships. The
following official account of the first day's opera-
tions was issued by the Admiralty on February
20 : —

" Yesterday at 8 a.m. a British Fleet of
battleships and battle cruisers, accompanied by
flotillas, and aided by a strong French squadron,

n6 THE DARDANELLES

the whole under the command of Vice- Admiral
Sackville H. Carden, began an attack upon
the forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles.
The forts at Cape Helles and Kum Kale were
bombarded with deliberate long-range fire.

" Considerable effect was produced on two of
the forts. Two others were frequently hit, but,
being open earthworks, it was difficult to estimate
the damage. The forts, being outranged, were
not able to reply to fire. At 2.45 p.m. a portion
of the battleship force was ordered to close and
engage the forts at closer range with secondary
armament.

" The forts on both sides of the entrance then
opened fire, and were engaged at moderate ranges
by Vengeance, Comwallis, Triumph, Suffren,
Gaulois, Bouvet, supported by Inflexible and
Agamemnon at long range. The forts on the
European side were apparently silenced. One fort
on the Asiatic side was still firing when the
operation was suspended owing to failing light.

"No ships of the Allied Fleet were hit.

" The action has been renewed this morning
after aerial reconnaissance. His Majesty's aero-

AND THEIR STORY 117

plane ship Ark Royal is in attendance with a
number of seaplanes and aeroplanes of the Naval
Wing."

This brief message sufficiently explains the
use of the antiquated warships ; their mission
was to go in and bombard the forts at close
range, while the newer and more powerfully
equipped vessels poured in their missiles from
the long distance permitted by the range of their
guns. As a matter of fact, they had the outer
forts outranged in these preliminary operations.

For some days after the delivery of the first
attack the weather prevented a resumption of
operations. The spring North Wind was blowing
down the Straits behind the current, making
very rough water off the mouth of the Darda-
nelles. It also rendered the task of the aerial
observers impossible, and as bad light was added
to their other difficulties, nothing could be done.

On the 25th it was possible to resume, and
in this fresh attack the Queen Elizabeth played a
strong part with her 15-inch guns. She made
such excellent practice at long range that the
two 9.2 guns in Fort Helles (A) were soon silenced.

u8 THE DARDANELLES

The Agamemnon, Irresistible and Gaulois were
operating on forts B, C, D at long range, and
bo accurate was their fire that it was possible
before the close of the day for the older vessels
to go in to a close range, and reduce all four
forts to silence. Mine-sweeping operations were
at once begun, screened by torpedo craft, and
continued on the next day.

It was then possible for two old ships, the
Albion and the Majestic, to enter the Straits,
swept clear of mines for four miles from the
entrance, and deliver an attack on Fort Dar-
danus (E). In the meantime landing parties
set to work on the four forts silenced on the
preceding day, and demolished them entirely.
Some hidden guns near the mouth were also
destroyed, and so ended a good day's work.

Four days later the passage had been cleared
of mines for nine miles from the entrance, the
sweepers doing their work under heavy fire,
but well covered by the torpedo craft. The
Triumph, Ocean and Albion then entered the
Straits and delivered an attack on fort H on
the Asiatic side. The fort replied, and the ships

COPYRIGHT "GEOGRAPHIA" LT? 5b FLEET STREET LONDON £

AND THEIR STORY no

had also to sustain the fire oi field guns and
light howitzers Meantime four oi the Fr<
ships shelled the battel i i lallipoli

peninsula near Bulair. On the following day

M.u. li ill •. tin attacked by the

pus, Suriftsure and ( '.'is, and they

■ in turn shelled by tl. 1 I, on

the i m sh< '!■ 1 'it I was sil< ti( i d, and

the ships withdrew.

Nothi] further Unporta] till

Mar. h 5, w hen the Q ivered a

1. 1 rible attack upon the i hiei -it.. I

Kilid Bahi I I J,

l iid r. In all >m the

[5-inch guns were d 1 rallipoli

peninsula into these foi 1-. I he mi - in

fori 1- blew up, and the oth< 1

badlv damaged.

\< \t d -. th< . • ■ i were turned on the
two forts "ii tin Asi iti< side 1 >i th( Nai 1

red 1 and \ Fr< »m a 1 .;; e oi twelve
miles the Q d by the

in. hurled her huge shells
into th< is A numbei oi the

120 THE DARDANELLES

older vessels and the French ship Suffren entered
the Straits and bombarded forts E and F. They
were hotly peppered by concealed guns from all
directions, but no really serious damage was
done.

Next day the four French ships, and the Lord
Nelson and Agamemnon began the direct bom-
bardment of the forts of the Narrows. Ex-
plosions occurred in forts J (Europe) and U
(Asia), and both forts were silenced.

By this time the trouble from concealed guns
had become acute. In order to locate them it
was necessary for the airmen to fly very low,
and some thrilling adventures were experienced
by several of the pilots.

The attempt on the Narrows culminated on
March 18, and the events of that day cannot be
told better than in the language of the official
dispatch, dated March 19 :—

" Mine-sweeping having been in progress during
the last ten days inside the Straits, a general
attack was delivered by the British and French
Fleets yesterday morning upon the fortresses
at the Narrows of the Dardanelles.

AND THEIR STORY 121

" At 10.45 a.m. Queen Elizabeth, Inflexible,
Agamemnon and Lord Nelson bombarded forts
J, L, T, U and V ; while Triumph and Prince
George fired at batteries F, E and H. A heavy
fire was opened on the ships from howitzers and
field guns.

" At 12.22 the French squadron, consisting of
Suffren, Gaulois, Charlemagne and Boitvet, ad-
vanced up the Dardanelles and engaged the
forts at closer range. Forts J, U, F and E
replied strongly. Their fire was silenced by
the ten battleships inside the Straits, all the
ships being hit several times during this part
of the action.

" By 1.25 p.m. all forts had ceased firing.
Vengeance, Irresistible, Albion, Ocean, Swiftsure
and Majestic then advanced to relieve the six
old battleships inside the Straits. As the French
squadron — which had engaged the forts in the
most brilliant fashion — .was passing out, Bouvet
was blown up by a drifting mine and sank in
36 fathoms, north of Aren Kioi village, in less
than three minutes.

" At 2.36 p.m. the relief battleships renewed

122 THE DARDANELLES

the attack on the forts, who again opened iire.
The attack on the forts was maintained while
the operations of the mine-sweepers continued.

" At 4.9 Irresistible quitted the line listing
heavily ; and at 5.50 she sank, having probably
struck a drifting mine.

"At 6.5, Ocean also having struck a mine,
both vessels sank in deep water, practically
the whole of the crews having been removed
safely under a hot lire. The Gaulois was damaged
by gun-fire. Inflexible had her forward control
position hit by a heavy shell, and requires repair.

" The bombardment of the forts and the
mine-sweeping operations terminated when dark-
ness fell. The damage to the forts effected
by the prolonged direct fire of the very powerful
forces employed cannot yet be estimated, and
a further report will follow.

" The losses of ships were caused by mines
drifting with the current, which were encountered
in areas hitherto swept clear, and this danger
will require special treatment.

" The British casualties in personnel are not
heavy, considering the scale of the operations ;

AND THEIR STORY 123

but practically the whole of the crew of the
Bouvet were lost with the ship, an internal ex-
plosion having apparently supervened on the
explosion of the mine. The Queen and Implac-
able, who were despatched from England to
replace ships' casualties in anticipation of this
operation, are due to arrive immediately, thus
bringing the British fleet up to its original strength.
" The operations are continuing, ample naval
and military forces being available on the spot.
On the 16th inst. Vice-Admiral Carden, who
has been incapacitated by illness, was succeeded
in the chief command by Rear-Admiral John
Michael de Robeck, with acting rank of Vice-
Admiral."

R

CHAPTER XIV
The Efficiency of the Fleet

EADING between the lines of the official

account which concludes the last chapter,
it is possible to construct the plan under-
lying the attempt of March 18. It had been
proved by experience that any hope of clearing
away the great minefield before the Narrows
must be abandoned. The presence of the battle-
ships themselves in the Dardanelles was not
sufficient to protect the mine-sweepers at this
dangerous work. Beyond a certain point they
could not operate, because of the heavy fire
from the forts that could not be silenced.

The plan was then formed, it appears, of
attempting to force the Narrows in spite of the
minefield. This might involve the loss of several
ships, but it was hoped that the others would
pass the Narrows and be able to silence the
forts that were obstructing further progress in

124

THE DARDANELLES 125

the work of mine-sweeping. For the success
of this scheme it was necessary that the forts
at Chanak and Kilid Bahr should be temporarily
silenced, and this task was entrusted to the
Queen Elizabeth, operating from outside the
entrance to the Straits.

The attack was finally abandoned because
these forts could not be silenced, and the passage
through a minefield under the fire of heavy
guns was an impossibility. The destruction of
three of the ships engaged by floating mines
was a circumstance not foreseen, but not bearing
directly on the abandonment of the attack.

With the demonstration of March 18, and
the regrettable loss of three battleships, the
attempt to force the Dardanelles with an unsup-
ported fleet may be said to have ended. Some
of the reasons are apparent even from the bare
facts in their official presentation. But the
language of the official reports is subject to
interpretation which gives other reasons for the
end of the first phase of the attack on the Straits.
In the first place, it is necessary to give some
detailed account of the effect produced by the

i26 THE DARDANELLES

explosion of the huge shells from the 15- and
12-inch guns of the warships. The apparent
effect of these explosions, as described in the
official reports, was to silence the fort in which
the explosion took place. Often the shell-burst
sufficed to kill all the gunners, or, at least, to
drive them to their bomb shelter until the bom-
bardment had ceased. The apparent effect of
the explosion of such a shell on the heavy earth-
work of the Dardanelles forts was, to the onlooker,
terrific. Vast quantities of rock and stone were
blown hither and thither, and to all appearance
the fort was reduced to a heap of ruins.

Yet the next bombardment found the same
guns busily returning the fire of the warships,
until another catastrophic shell put the gunners
out of business. The real effect of these heavy
shells on the guns themselves was witnessed
by the landing parties who demolished the forts
at the entrance of the Straits. These forts
had been subjected to a terrific bombardment
with big shells, and those who landed expected
to find nothing but rubble there. They were
surprised to discover most of the guns in good

AND THEIR STORY 127

order ; the only exceptions to this rule being
those guns which had been struck directly by
shell. In short, the earthworks of the forts of
the Dardanelles afforded a better protection
from heavy shells than the concrete of Liege or
Namur.

Another reason may be found in the skill with
which guns were concealed among the hills
along the shore, especially those of the Gallipoli
Peninsula. The country on the European side
lends itself well to the concealment of guns,
and is of a nature to defy the efforts of the best
airmen observers to locate them. The hidden
guns also proved difficult to silence when dis-
covered, the hills hindering the success of the
signals given by the airmen. And when the
range of one of these hidden guns was accurately
gauged, it was no uncommon thing to find the
gun " shamming dead," only to reappear in a
new place when the next fleet attack was made.

The difficulties that beset the mine-sweepers
were manifold, but the chief of them was the
number of field pieces and mobile howitzers
employed against them. These, by reason of

128 THE DARDANELLES

the ease with which they were moved from day
to day, and the excellent cover existing for them,
were practically impervious to the attack of
the battleships which covered the sweeping opera-
tions. Thus the work of mine -sweeping was
rendered very dangerous and difficult, and it
was next door to impossible to give those engaged
in it the requisite protection.

During the month which elapsed between
the first bombardment and the final operations
on the Narrows these difficulties increased. The
preparations of the enemy became more effective
as time went on, and each succeeding day demon-
strated more clearly the necessity of a land
force.

Within a week of the opening bombardment,
the sweepers had cleared the passage of mines
to a distance of ten miles from the mouth. They
never succeeded, however, in clearing the main
field, which lies just before the entrance to the
Narrows, though the bravery and devotion with
which they essayed the task is beyond all praise.

To the danger from this minefield has to
be added the risk attached to the employment

AND THEIR STORY 129

by the enemy of mines floating down the current ;
and how grave this risk was the disasters to
the Irresistible, Ocean and Bouvet will testify.
But the loss of those ships may be said to have
coincided with the decision to back the sea force
with a land force, rather than to have been the
cause of it. The decision may be accepted as
a confession that the conception of the first
attempt to force the Dardanelles was a failure,
though there was no shortcoming in its exe-
cution.

Indeed, the accurate shooting of the newer
ships from long ranges, the gallantry in action
of the older vessels at short range, the splen-
did bravery of the mine-sweepers under the
most adverse circumstances, the reckless gal-
lantry of the aerial observers, all make up
another glorious chapter in the history of the
British Navy.

It is impossible to leave this aspect of the
subject without giving details of some of the
outstanding work of the sailors engaged in this
difficult adventure. Owing to some mishap, not
yet explained, the submarine E 15 ran ashore

1

130 THE DARDANELLES

on Kephez Point, and her crew fell into the
hands of the Turks. The vessel herself remained
aground in a serviceable condition, and there
was some danger that she would fall into the
hands of the enemy, and eventually be used
against us. She was located under the very
guns of Fort H, and any attempt to reach her
was fraught with extreme danger.

But the British Navy could not look on and
see such a thing happen as the Turks gaining
possession of a brand new British submarine,
and a destroying expedition was organized.
The expedition was commanded by Lieut. -Com-
mander Eric Robinson, who had as junior officers
Lieutenant Brook Webb and Midshipman Wool-
ley, all of the Triumph. Lieutenant Claude
Godwin, of the Majestic, was also attached to
the expedition. It consisted of three picket
boats, each equipped with torpedo gear, and
manned by volunteers.

The boats entered the Straits in the dead of
the night of April 18, and set out on their ten
mile journey to Kephez Point. Their presence
was discovered soon enough, and they had to

AND THEIR STORY 131

set about their work under the hot fire of the
fort, not many hundred yards away. Quite
200 rounds were fired at them and one of the
picket boats was sunk, but all the crew were
saved by one of the companion boats. But
the submarine was torpedoed and rendered use-
less, and the gallant adventurers returned to
their ships with the loss of one man only.

Another gallant exploit was that of the
Amethyst, which set out to cut the cable between
Chanak and Kilid Bahr. This involved a dash
through the minefields at the mouth of the
Narrows, and under the heavy guns of all the
forts that protect the Narrows. She was hit
no less than twenty-two times during her dash,
and of the gallant men aboard her, twenty-three
were killed and thirty-seven wounded before she
could return to the fleet.

The work involved by the attempt on the
Straits is further evidenced by the record of the
Triumph, which was in action seventeen times,
was hit fourteen times and fired over 2,000
rounds of ammunition. Records equally glori-
ous attach to other of the older ships engaged

i32 THE DARDANELLES

in the desperate work of facing the batteries,
hidden guns, and minefields in the Straits, the
risks they took being in no way represented in
the official accounts of the fighting.

■ ^ am

o S

to *!

*j a.

C 3

03 £

£ 1

.22 £

'■a _i

CHAPTER XV
The Landing of the Army

THE unsupported attack from the sea having
proved impracticable, the support of a
large landing force was promptly requisitioned.
Having grasped the factors which retarded the
development of the attack from the sea, the
functions of the landing force become perfectly
obvious. The silenced forts must be promptly
occupied and held, so that the intervals between
the bombardments may not be employed in
remounting the guns and reconstituting the
strongholds. The sites of the hidden guns must
be captured and the guns themselves put per-
manently out of action ; no opportunity must
be given for the use of field guns and light
howitzers to hinder the work of the mine-sweepers.
In brief the work of the landing force involves
nothing less than the capture and occupation
of the whole of the Gallipoli Peninsula, as far,

133

134 THE DARDANELLES

at least, as the Narrows. If once that point
of vantage be gained, the Asiatic shore can
be dominated. Throughout the operations of
February and March, comparatively little trouble
was experienced from the enemy posted on
that side of the channel, the chief resistance
proceeding from the high ground of the peninsula.

It is still possible to speak only in the most
general terms of the component parts and the
strength of the landing force. A French con-
tingent, consisting of troops from the South
of France and native Moroccan soldiers, was
sent east under the command of General
d'Amade, the hero of many a French colonial
campaign. The failure of the Turkish attack
on Egypt released large bodies of troops, includ-
ing the Australian and New Zealand Expedi-
tionary Forces, from service there. Heavy
drafts of the New Army were also sent direct
from England to the scene of operations. The
expedition was commanded by General Sir Ian
Hamilton.

Time had been afforded the enemy to make
elaborate preparations to resist their landing,

AND THEIR STORY 135

and to defend the country on both sides of the
channel. Elaborate entrenchments were thrown
up throughout the Peninsula, protected, after
the German fashion, with lavish entanglements
of barbed wire. A force of Turkish soldiers,
estimated at 60,000 men, held the trenches
prepared to contest every inch of ground. Full
use was made of all the ordnance, heavy and
light, which had been concentrated on the shores
of the Dardanelles.

The opposition began with the first attempt
at landing. Barbed wire had been stretched
under the very sea to hinder the operation ;
deep pits lined with spikes had been dug on the
shore ; and beyond these barbed wire entangle-
ments had been contrived in exposed positions,
on which the fire of hidden guns was concen-
trated.

Nevertheless the landing was effected in three
places on the same day, April 25. The French
force landed on the Asiatic shore, not far from
the ruined fort of Kum Kale. Another landing-
was successfully effected by the Australian and
New Zealand Expeditionary troops, in the Bay

1 36 THE DARDANELLES

of Saros, at a spot not far from Gaba Tepe.
The third, and main landing, was effected
at five points on the extreme end of the
peninsula.

The landing operations were covered by a
terrific bombardment from the whole allied fleet,
in which the Russian cruiser Askold took part.
Some of the warships penetrated the Dardanelles
as far as the very edge of the minefields, and
rained shells on the forts at the Narrows. As
the details will show, the whole of the landing
was effected successfully, thanks to the great
gallantry displayed by every one concerned,
sailors and soldiers displaying an equal devotion
and contempt of death.

The landing of the Australians took place
on the morning of April 25. For many of the
men engaged it was a first experience of actual
fighting, and the feat of arms is the more remark-
able on this account.

Accompanied by three battleships, the fleet of
transports steamed up to the chosen spot about
midnight of April 24, and at 2 a.m. on the
next morning the men entered the boats, which

AND THEIR STORY 137

made for the shore in the darkness. The exact
landing was made at the foot of a precipitous
cliff, a spot which the enemy had apparently
neglected, not expecting an attempt would be
made at so unpromising a spot.

A force of Turks, however, arrived on the
spot in time to resist the actual landing, and
the men left the boats under heavy fire from
rifles and a Maxim gun. When this opened
the Australians sprang into the sea, waded
ashore, and formed a line. Then with a rush
they swept the Turks from their shore trench
at the point of the bayonet.

Half way up the cliff, which was covered with
a dense scrub, the enemy held yet another trench,
from which they poured a withering fire upon
the approaching boats. Up the cliff went the
first landing party, and without firing a shot
made straight for the rifle flashes. Again the
bayonet was used, and the Turks were cleared
out of their second trench.

But the cliffs and the space at their top
afforded close cover, and snipers lurked in every
thicket. As daylight came, these did deadly

I38 THE DARDANELLES

work upon each approaching boat. As the men
landed they had to bolt for cover across the
open beach, a fifty yard run before they ceased
to be exposed. Even worse placed were the
boat crews, for after landing their human loads,
they had to row away with a heavy fire con-
centrated upon them.

Later in the morning fire was opened from
two guns brought from Gaba Tepe by the enemy,
and for the rest of the day the beach was remorse-
lessly swept with shrapnel, as well as peppered
by the countless concealed snipers. This did
not suit the Australians and New Zealanders
at all. They reached the top of the cliff, dug
themselves in there, and with characteristic
resourcefulness sought some way to check the
fire of the snipers.

They consequently began to move inland,
hoping to clear the scrub of the damaging snipers.
In this work they encountered a strong force
of Turks who were being brought up to resist
and hinder the landing. Heavily outnumbered,
the Colonials made a gallant fight of it, and fell
back to their positions on the top of the cliff.

AND THEIR STORY 139

These they held against all attacks, and so
permitted the work of landing to go on.

For fifteen hours they held these heights,
under a shell fire that never ceased and in the
face of a largely superior force. By the end of
that time the enfilading guns had been located
and silenced by one of the battleships, and the
position became more tenable. But the sniping
and the attacks were continued throughout the
night, the gallant Colonials losing heavily.
From time to time they made counter attacks
with the bayonet, routing the Turks, who have
no relish for this kind of fighting.

Meanwhile practicable paths were being con-
structed up the cliff, ammunition and other
stores were being conveyed to its crest, and the
position so gallantly won was being made tenable.
It was well that this was done, for on the next
day the enemy delivered an attack in force.
And here the warships came in. Seven of them
la}^ off the coast to protect the position, and
being now acquainted with the exact position
of their own men could devote their attention
to the Turks.

140 THE DARDANELLES

For hours they rained shrapnel on the cliffs.
The Queen Elizabeth, far out at sea, set the
example with an occasional shell from her 15-inch
guns ; a missile charged with 20,000 bullets.
Each ship had its section of the cliff-top to
attack, and the storm of shrapnel did terrible
damage to the enemy.

These had also brought up more field pieces,
and returned a hot fire, though nothing to com-
pare with the shell fire from the warships. Their
snipers, advantageously posted days beforehand,
continued to do their worst, especially in picking
off officers, among whom the casualties were
very heavy. But after nine hours of it the
Turks became demoralized by the shelling they
were receiving, and their attack slackened.

Then came the final act of Colonial gallantry.
The word of command was given all along the
line, the flash of bayonets was seen, and with a
rousing cheer Australians and New Zealanders
rushed forward in a terrible charge. It is doubt-
ful whether the best troops in the world could
have stood long against that devoted rush.
Certainly the Turks could not. They broke and

AND THEIR STORY 141

fled, leaving many prisoners and some machine
guns in the hands of the victors.

These were disposed to follow up their advan-
tage too closely, but their officers got them well
in hand. Orders to dig in were given, and before
night fell they were well entrenched, under
cover which made the shrapnel fire comparatively
harmless.

So the men from " down under " received their
baptism of blood. It was no useless sacrifice
they made, their dash and resource gained a very
decided advantage for their country. And in
that knowledge men wounded almost to death
sang and cheered as though they were coming
home from a picnic.

In describing their conduct Mr. Ashmead
Bartlett writes : —

" I have, in fact, never seen the like of these
wounded Australians in war before, for as they
were towed among the ships while accommoda-
tion was being found for them, although many
were shot to bits and without hope of recovery,
their cheers resounded through the night, and
you could just see amid a mass of suffering

142 THE DARDANELLES

humanity arms being waved in greeting to the
crews of the warships. They were happy because
they knew they had been tried for the first time
in the war and had not been found wanting.
They had been told to occupy the heights and
hold on, and this they had done for fifteen mortal
hours under an incessant shell fire without the
moral and material support of a single gun
ashore and subjected the whole time to the
violent counter-attacks of a brave enemy led
by skilled leaders, while his snipers, hidden in
caves, thickets, and among the dense shrub,
made a deliberate practice of picking off every
officer who endeavoured to give a word of com-
mand or to lead his men forward.

" No finer feat of arms has been performed
during the war than this sudden landing in the
dark, this storming of the heights, and, above
all, the holding on to the position thus won while
reinforcements were being poured from the
transports. These raw Colonial troops in those
desperate hours proved themselves worthy to
fight side by side with the heroes of Mons and
the Aisne, Ypres and Neuve Chapelle.

CHAPTER XVI
Astride Gallipoli

WHILE the Australians and New Zealanders
were making such a brave fight at Gaba
Tepe, another and larger force was being landed
at the extreme point of the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Here five separate landings took place in the
neighbourhood of Cape Helles. The shore at
this place consists of low cliffs with rocky fore-
shore ; but here and there a stretch of sandy
beach occurs. The country above the cliffs is
flat and open for the space of a mile or two,
and then sweeps upward into rough densely-
wooded hills.

Five of these beaches were selected for landing,
the plan in each case being to take possession
of the cliffs overhanging the beach, and so to
establish and protect an area on which guns and
stores could safely be landed. The landing on
the most westerly beach of all was accomplished

143

144 THE DARDANELLES

without opposition, and the party successfully
occupied the top of the cliff. The next day
they attempted to advance inland, but met
with very severe opposition and were forced to
retire. Ultimately they were re-embarked, hav-
ing suffered very heavy casualties.

The landing on the beach farther south was
covered by the Implacable, which steamed in as
close to the shore as possible, and poured shrapnel
on the cliffs. Under cover of this fire the land-
ing party got a footing on the edge of the cliff,
and dug in. Then they advanced half a mile
inland, where they were violently attacked.
Struggling desperately they fought yard for yard
all the way back to the cliff top, but beyond
there the enemy could not drive them. On the
next day they were again able to advance and
to establish themselves securely. They found
the country here bristling with bomb-proof shel-
ters and trenches which had been dug by the
Turks, and did not appear to have suffered
very greatly from the heavy shelling endured
from the warships.

The third beach is situated between Cape

AND THEIR STORY 145

Helles and Cape Tekeh. It consists of a bay with
a sandy beach shut in on both sides by high
cliffs. The valley which terminates in the bay
and sandy beach had been liberally protected
with barbed wire, and was defended by hidden
snipers, whose fire was most deadly and accurate.
The landing was preceded by a heavy fire from
the warships, directed on this valley in the hope
of destroying the barbed wire.

The landing was then begun, boats making
for the cliffs on either side of the beach, and the
men climbing the cliffs and hanging on to the
ridge at the top, in spite of the deadliest resis-
tance. Some boats made for the beach itself,
and were met with a terrible fire from machine
guns, snipers and entrenched troops ; while
before them was a solid mass of barbed wire.
The Maxim guns had been carefully placed in
holes dug in the cliff, where the fire from the
warships could not harm them, and were trained
on to this stretch of sandy beach.

The gallantry of the men on the cliff edge
saved this situation, for charging forward they
captured the Turkish trenches, and so stopped

146 THE DARDANELLES

the enfilading fire that had been coming from
them. More troops were landed, and drove the
Turks farther back still, permitting assistance
to be rendered to the wounded men with whom
the beach itself was strewn. The barbed wire
was cut, and the beach was made ready for the
landing of stores and guns. But the Turks
returned to the attack very heavily reinforced,
and the night fighting was most severe. The
next day more troops were landed, and the footing
was finally made secure.

The fourth landing was made between Cape
Helles and Seddul Bahr, on a beach very similar
to that just described. On the hills above are
situated the remains of the Fort of Seddul Bahr,
silenced by the warships in February, and de-
molished by a landing party at that time. The
Turks had defended the heights with the usual
barbed wire, machine guns, and carefully placed
snipers. The valley itself was entrenched, and
the trenches were liberally protected with barbed
wire.

A liner, the River Clyde, had been specially
prepared for this landing. Her bridge was

i

f» '*■■.>' •.- - ¥ '

L/'.'i >to, .]//io;.

After the Bombardment.

l (feci oi the Q«««« E/» aSdA's shi Us upon on oi the forts.

AND THEIR STORY 147

armoured with steel plates, and in her bows
were a dozen Maxim guns similarly protected.
In her sides doors had been cut, to allow of rapid
disembarkation, and wooden gangways sloping
down to the water were rigged to these doors.
The liner conveyed 2,000 troops for landing, and
was deliberately run ashore under the cliffs.
At the same time a landing party in boats made
an attempt to get a footing on the beach, but
was met with a withering fire, and only a few
of them escaped unscathed.

The fire was also directed to the River Clyde,
the bullets raining on her steel sides without
harming the men they sheltered. An attempt
to land by means of one of the gangways was
now made, about 200 men gallantly rushing
down to the beach. Some were killed on the
gangway itself, some on the reef, and many on
the beach. But few of these brave fellows escaped.

No landing could be effected under such a
fire, and the battleships Comwallis, Albion and
Queen Elizabeth began bombarding the cliffs
and the old fort, in the hope of silencing the
machine guns which were doing most of the

1 48 THE DARDANELLES

mischief. All day the men lay on the liner,
with the bullets playing on her side, and certain
death waiting for any one who might show
himself. From the forts on the Asiatic side the
big howitzers were trying to hit the liner, but
warships were able to keep this fire under. Four
times she was struck by the big shells from these
forts, but luckily not one of these shells exploded.

When darkness came on it was decided to
make an attempt to land the men from the liner ;
and curiously enough this was done, and the
men were got under cover, without any resistance
being experienced. But when the Turks dis-
covered what had occurred they opened again
a furious fire ; this, however, did little damage
to the troops, who had good cover.

There still remained much work to be done.
On the hill the enemy strongly occupied the old
fort, and behind that the castle of Seddul Bahr,
and the village bearing the same name. Beyond
that again was a hill known as 141, strongly
protected with wired trenches and machine
guns. The castle had to be bombarded from
the warships to silence machine guns placed

AND THEIR STORY 149

in its towers, and there was a stiff fight in the
ruins of the village, house to house fighting tak-
ing place. On the following day the trenches of
Hill 141 were carried, severe losses being incurred
in the operation. Thus the landing-place at
Seddul Bahr was finally established.

The following description of the ruined fort
is given by the special correspondent of the
Times who witnessed these landings : —

" The ruins of Seddul Bahr present an amaz-
ing spectacle. The castle, forts, and village are
now little but a jumble of crushed masonry.
The guns in the forts lie smashed into huge pieces
of steel, and have been thrown by the force of
the explosions several yards from their mountings.
Great heaps of unused ammunition are piled up
beside them. The old towers of the castle are
partly standing, although riddled by huge shells.
The barracks at the back have been gutted by
shells and flames."

The fifth landing was made between Seddul
Bahr and de Tott's Battery, 700 men being put
ashore by trawlers, and establishing themselves
on the cliffs in the face of a spirited opposition.

150 THE DARDANELLES

This point of landing, it should be observed, is
well within the passage of the Dardanelles.

These landings have been described as separate
operations and reasonably so. But the secure
footing that was finally obtained on the southern
extremity of the peninsula was due to the co-
ordination of these separate efforts, the landing
secured at one place helping to clear the way
for the attempt at another.

The whole of this hazardous work was carried
out with the utmost dash and bravery, men
everywhere facing certain death without a qualm.
The total price paid for the landing was a high
one, though not higher than the importance of
the end gained would warrant. From that
time forward it was possible to continue the
forcing work with method and precision.

CHAPTER XVII
By Land and Sea

HAVING driven the enemy away from the
edge of the cliffs, and silenced the machine
guns on the hills, it became possible to land
stores without loss, and to bring up further
troops by transport. During the ten days fol-
lowing the splendid landings of April 25, rein-
forcements were continually arriving, and the
communications between the various landing
points were firmly established. It has already
been stated that the French troops were landed
at Kum Kale on the Asiatic shore. This was
merely a blind, to keep the guns and troops on
that side occupied, and so to cover the vital
landing operations on the peninsula. When
that important point had been gained, the French
division was removed from the Asiatic shore
and transferred to the point near de Tott's,

151

152 THE DARDANELLES

where a landing had been effected well inside
the channel of the Dardanelles.

The position of the different forces can easily
be grasped. The Australians were at Gaba
Tepe, furthest north ; the French at de Tott's,
furthest south ; the British at and around Cape
Helles, furthest west. Simultaneously they
began an advance inland, drawing together
around two hills known as Krithia and Achi
Baba, the highest and strongest positions in the
Gallipoli Peninsula. Krithia is situated about
midway between Gaba Tepe and Cape Helles,
and landings had been effected on either side of it.

This advance began on April 28, and was met
with a strong opposition. The right (French)
and centre made good headway, but on the left
the difficult nature of the country made progress
slow. There was more spirited fighting on May
1, when the French bore the brunt of repeated
bayonet attacks delivered with remarkable spirit.
From the warships in the Straits the bayonet
fighting could clearly be seen, the observers
actually looking on at the defeat of the Turks,
and marking how few of them escaped death or

AND THEIR STORY 153

capture. In this fight the Turks lost quite
3,000 men.

Thereafter they confined themselves to night
attacks, using their shrapnel with a prodigality
not justified by the results. The main point
of attack was the French end of the line, which
was slowly pressing on to command all the coastal
strip between the entrance and the Narrows,
an important position when once gained. The
batteries on the Asiatic side were in a good posi-
tion to hinder these operations, but were kept
well in check by the warships. As soon as the
forts opened fire, the return would come promptly
from the 12-inch guns, driving the shore gunners
into cover and away from their guns.

Better even than this, the good shooting of
the Agamemnon resulted in a number of the
heavy guns being knocked out with direct hits,
the accuracy resulting from combination with a
dauntless observer signalling from an aeroplane.
The Queen Elizabeth, shooting across the penin-
sula from the Gulf of Saros, also did excellent
work, and the two big forts near the Narrows
on the Asiatic side had a very warm time.

154 THE DARDANELLES

But the efforts of the warships in the Straits
were concentrated on the big group of forts at
Kilid Bahr, which were also the first objective
of the land attack. Early in May these forts
had been reduced apparently to a heap of ruins,
though previous experience had taught the attack-
ing force not to be deceived by appearance, or
by the continued silence of the batteries. The
Kilid Bahr forts will only be considered out of
action when they have been dismantled and
destroyed by an occupying force.

Attacked from three quarters at once, the
Turks on the peninsula slowly fell back upon
their strongest positions, Krithia and Achi Baba.
The country was a network of trenches, from
which the enemy had to be driven trench by
trench. The customary defences of barbed wire,
hidden machine guns, and well-posted snipers
caused each day's work to be accompanied by
severe losses ; the enemy selling each trench as
dearly as might be. By the end of the first
week in May, this portion of the Turkish force
was practically surrounded, and cut off from
the defenders of Gallipoli and other positions

AND THEIR STORY 155

nearer Constantinople. But though cut off, the
Turks were posted in an enormously strong
position on the height of Achi Baba.

This position was being shelled continuously
by the warships, causing terrible losses. By
the middle of May it was estimated that the
Turkish losses on the peninsula had amounted
to 55,000 men, there being 40,000 wounded in
Constantinople at this time. The penetration
of the Straits by our warships had advanced so
far that Gallipoli was being shelled by direct
fire, and great loss of stores was occasioned to
the enemy from this source at Chanak, Maidos
and even Gallipoli.

The damage at Gallipoli prompted the Turks
to experiment with a reprisal, the nature of which
was probably suggested to them by their German
mentors. It bears at least the true German
imprint, the hallmark of a barbarity alien even
to the Turk. In order to divert the fire of the
warships from Gallipoli, they threatened to con-
vey civilians of the Allied nationalities from
Constantinople to the zone of fire, and expose

156 THE DARDANELLES

them to the same risks as were being taken by
the defenders of Gallipoli.

This threat was conveyed to Sir Edward Grey
through the customary American sources, and
produced the stern reply that if any one of these
civilians should suffer from the course intended,
the Sultan and Enver Pasha would be held per-
sonally responsible by the British Government.
Before this reply reached Constantinople some
forty men of British and French nationality
were actually taken to Gallipoli, but after con-
sideration the Turks sent them back to Constan-
tinople. The disgust this squeamishness caused
in their German friends may be imagined ; but
the Turk, after a century of reverses, has acquired
a habit of expecting the worst which served him
well in this instance.

Meanwhile all was terror and confusion in
Constantinople. One or more British submarines
had succeeded in getting through the minefields
and past Gallipoli into the Sea of Marmora.
There the shipping in the very port of Constanti-
nople was at their mercy. A number of German
ships which had been sheltered there since the

AND THEIR STORY 157

very beginning of the war appear to have been
sunk, and a very intelligible panic ensued
among Turkish shipowners.

The attack did not go all one way, however,
for a Turkish torpedo boat struck a very severe
blow at the fleet by sinking the warship
Goliath, with very heavy loss of life.

It is now possible to recapitulate the position
at the Dardanelles three months after the first
attack had been delivered by sea. The forts
at the entrance had been demolished, leaving
free entrance to the attacking fleets. A strong
force had been landed in three places on the
peninsula, and had been supplied with all neces-
sary equipment, even to batteries of heavy field
and siege guns. The Turks had been driven
into the very strongest of their entrenched posi-
tions, with a loss estimated at one half of the
original defending forces. In their strong posi-
tions they were subject to daily attacks by land,
and continuous shelling from the heavy guns at
sea, with the result that the positions were rapidly
becoming untenable.

The work of clearing the Straits had pro-

158 THE DARDANELLES

gressed so far that all the forts up to the Narrows
had been silenced, with the exception of the
strong forts at Chanak, and one at Kilid Bahr.
Positions at Nagara, Maidos and Gallipoli, further
up the passage, were subject to continuous attack,
and great loss of stores had been suffered by the
enemy. The work of mine-sweeping was going
forward, more progress being made as the war-
ships established superiority over the forts of the
Narrows. Only when the strip of coastal terri-
tory from Cape Helles to Sidil Bahr falls into the
hands of the land expedition will it be possible
to deal thoroughly with these minefields.

The method, determination and courage dis-
played in the attack leave little doubt of the
ultimate fate of Constantinople. The hour can-
not much longer be delayed when the Allied
fleet will appear off the city, and its holders must
take their choice of surrender or bombardment.
That German advice will be given to force a
bombardment of the city seems very certain,
but it is not so sure that such advice will be
followed. There is a strong party in Turkey that
has never been too much in love with their Ger-

AND THEIR STORY 159

man friends, and that party will surely assert itself
when affairs have reached such a pass. In any
case, the fall of the city cannot long be delayed
when once the passage through the Dardanelles
has been cleared.

CHAPTER XVIII
The Future of the Dardanelles

MR. ASQUITH has interpreted in unmis-
takable words all that the fall of Con-
stantinople will mean. It will signify " the
death knell of the Ottoman dominion, not only
in Europe, but in Asia." The mastery of the
Dardanelles will pass into other hands, the
Cross will replace the crescent on the minaret
of St. Sophia, and a new era will begin for the
noble city of Constantinople.

Among all the great questions set aside for
settlement till the day when the theory that
might is right shall have been utterly disproved,
there is no more fascinating speculation than
that which involves the future of Constantinople.
Her position as the Queen city of the near East
remains unchallenged ; recent developments have
only served to increase the value of her splendid

160

AND THEIR STORY 161

position, and the trading advantage it gives
her.

Half a century ago it might have seemed
that her place as half-way house between East
and West was being assailed. The cutting of
the Suez canal, opening a short sea route to
the Far East, necessarily diverted a large pro-
portion of the trade that once came by caravan
to the marts of Constantinople. The city was
no longer the stepping-off place from Europe
to Eastern Asia, for the great liners took away
the host of travellers who once found their first
caravanserai by the shore of the Golden Horn.

But time gives back inevitably all that it
takes away. The railway from Constantinople
to India is as certain to be built as the Turk
is sure to be dispossessed of all claim or interest
in it. Once more Constantinople will be the
stopping-place on the way to the East, the place
where all Europe meets all Asia.

It is just as sure that there can be no changes
in Central Europe that will not bring new pros-
perity to Constantinople. The small States
that must be maintained as a buffer between

162 THE DARDANELLES

the Teutonic countries of the future and the
Mediterranean will certainly find their real capi-
tal there. The wealth of Southern Russia can
never find any other outlet than the natural
one of the Dardanelles. The wealth of a new
Persia and a freed Asia Minor must flow out-
wards by the same channel. The Constanti-
nople of the future will be materially greater
than the Constantinople of the past ever was.

Nor can the magic of the city ever pass away.
The white minarets will still rise above the yellow
houses, the pleasant gardens will slope down
to the sweet waters, over which glide the count-
less caiques, and the glamour of Stamboul will
abide forever where the tides of the Bosphorus
sweep into the Propontis. Nothing of the
romance of the city will depart with the power
of the Turk. The same polyglot multi-hued
crowd will nightly throng the bridges to Galata,
the same mystery will brood over the high walls
that bisect the tree-filled gardens. The charm,
the fascination and the grandeur of Constanti-
nople are abiding qualities.

More ; reverent hands will restore many of

AND THEIR STORY 163

the hidden glories of the past. The sickly white-
wash that disfigures the walls of St. Sophia will
disappear, and the vivid frescoes will again
see the light of day. That and many another
Christian church will be restored to the high
service to which they were consecrated. The
foul spots of the city will be cleansed, its plague
spots and sores will be healed. There is a great
work to do at Constantinople when the world
has recovered the precious gift of peace. But
who is to do it ?

Not many years ago, when the Balkan States
made common cause, and swept the Turk back
to the very borders of the city, men discussed
a possibility of a free Constantinople under
a joint rule of the nations of the Balkan League.
So much courage, so much devotion, so much
unity gave promise of a great future for the
new combination. That promise was broken
almost as soon as it was given. The hideous
story of the second Balkan war, with its muti-
lations and tortures, its aftermath of endless
hatred between nations that are brothers in
blood, makes it impossible to consider such a

164 THE DARDANELLES

trust being granted to them. The Balkan League
no longer exists ; it never existed save in name.

Indeed, a good deal has been written in this
book with the object of showing that the opinions
and the interests of the Balkan States are likely
to receive only the scantest consideration when
the settlement of the future of Constantinople
is being made. Except Serbia and Montenegro,
none of the States has earned any title to con-
sideration, unless it be from the enemies of the
Allied Powers. The devotion of Belgium, the
patience of Holland, the harmlessness of Den-
mark are not to be found here.

Shall Russia, then, realize the cherished am-
bition of more than a century ? It is the custom
to show that Russia no longer stands in the
same relation to ourselves in the East as she
did forty years ago. The Russian pressure
on the Indian frontier has long been relaxed,
the influence of Russia in Persia has been clearly
defined and limited. Russia's right to a free
passage for her products through the Darda-
nelles will never be disputed, it is a right that
will ever be held inalienable. But the control

AND THEIR STORY 165

of Constantinople is as little likely to pass into
Russian hands, as the Russian fleet is likely to
be before Constantinople sooner than the com-
bined fleets of Great Britain and France.

The great war in Europe has been defined
as a war on behalf of the small nations. Any
settlement that may be made at its conclusion
will have as its basis the prevention of aggran-
disement of any power of Europe, whether it
be Great Britain, or Germany, or Russia. And
for that reason alone Constantinople is as little
likely to fall into the hands of Russia as into
the control of Great Britain herself.

The spirit in which the future of Constanti-
nople must and will be settled is the spirit in
which the Allies make war. All thought of
national gain, if any were ever cherished, has
long been set aside. To fight for the very essence
of civilization is the mission of every peasant
who takes up arms against Germany and the
German idea. The freedom of the weak, the
value of the plighted word of a nation, the verj'
elementary decencies of humanity are all at
stake. The magnitude of the issue has exalted

166 THE DARDANELLES

those who contend for the right, and whole regi-
ments of heroes have risen up out of common-
place men to die for all they hold sacred.

The three great nations who are banded
together in this noble cause embody the very
spirit of sacrifice. Time after time one has
bled that the other may endure to triumph.
Never have allied nations shown less jealousy,
and more devotion to the common cause. The
essence of what we are fighting for is the pre-
servation of the smaller nations of Europe.
We shed our blood to destroy the Colossus that
would rear his greater height by devouring
the small and the weak.

Given such a cause, the acquisition of a
new power, as the possession of Constantinople
undoubtedly is, must be regarded as a grave
responsibility. How earnestly it was sought to
avoid it has already been shown, or this book
has been written in vain. It is a responsibility
thrust on the Allied Powers by the essential
incapacity of the Turk to do the right thing,
or to espouse the right cause. And it has been
accepted in no mean spirit of self-seeking. The

AND THEIR STORY 167

lamentable picture of the Balkan States, quarrel-
ling over the spoils before the checked oppressor
has been wholly reduced, will not be repeated.
Higher ideals are abroad to-day among the
really great nations of the earth.

To open the Dardanelles for the benefit of
all, and to the special advantage of none, is
a problem to which it will indeed be difficult
to find a solution. But the governing factor
in finding it already exists ; those to whom the
task will fall are to approach it with the highest
and best purpose.

Nor does Constantinople herself present any
obstacle to an adequate solution. When the
Turk shall have gone, the city contains no pre-
ponderating nationality that will sway its future
from within. It is a gathering place for the
nations of the world, a city that belongs to every
continent and clime. Professor Freeman, in a
prescient passage which has been quoted, points
out that no natural head for Constantinople
may readily be found, when the stranger shall
have been driven out. The converse is so far
true that to Constantinople no rule will appear

168 THE DARDANELLES

unnatural, let it only be a firm and just one.
It rests largely with the future what form of
international control will be set up in Constanti-
nople. A difficulty which has maintained the
Turk in Europe for well-nigh a century, an offence
to the very spirit of progress and humanity,
cannot be settled by mere good intent or ordi-
nary ingenuity. Circumstances must guide the
settlement — 'the circumstances in which Europe
finds itself at the end of the war. It will surely
be a better world then : perhaps good enough
to find the right future for Constantinople.

Butler & 1 aniier ! (owe and LodJou

THE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Santa Barbara

THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW.

Series 9482

3 1205 00117 5411

-**e

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

A A 000 297 428 5